


The Red Witch

by Emerald_Demona



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-03-19 19:22:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 68,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3621360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald_Demona/pseuds/Emerald_Demona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Buffy didn't turn back for Willow in that scene at the end of Wrecked (season 6 episode 10). What if she left her best friend lying in the street that night how would that change the story we saw? What would happen to the relationships between the Scoobies? And what would happen to Willow if Buffy's desertion resulted in an event that none of them could see coming?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This story is dedicated to The Silent Scream without whom it would have never been written. In this reality Xander and Anya are married, Spike never attempted to rape Buffy so he never left to get a soul and he simply remains annoying and sometimes useful. Also the timeline is a bit off so some events of season seven occurred early or out of order and some never occurred due to changes in characters. Tara was never shot and the three nerds were arrested fair quickly after attempting to kill Buffy (Andrew and Warren share a cell ;) ). This story is has no beta.
> 
> Disclaimer-  
> Me no own and me no paid so you no sue cause me broke. Me give back scoobies in almost good condition later.  
> This story will at times be graphic in terms of violence and language, but as of now I have no plans for explicit sex scenes. If you can handle a little gore from time to time then welcome and if not please do not read.

Prologue

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so so sorry" Willow sobbed again and again, but Buffy, Spike and Dawn were long gone. There was no one around to hear her and no one who did hear her was likely to care. She couldn't go home Buffy said to stay away from Dawn so she wouldn't want Will in her home any longer. Both Tara and Dawn were sure to hate her now, she had gotten Dawnie hurt whether she meant to or not and Tara had already left her because of the magic. She had deserved that slap, Dawn's contempt, a trust had been broken that she might never regain and she had no one now. She doubted Xander would even look at her now and Anya would go along with Xander. 'What would she do now?' she thought there was no where left to go and no one left to turn to she had burned some major bridges tonight. 

Well at least one thing was clear she had finally hit bottom as she lay there on the ground in the dark and cold street she realized finally that going back to Rack and Amy would get her nowhere. The only way to move forward now would be without magic period. She would go home to her parent's home and clean herself up maybe then she could earn back the trust of her friends, and it's not like her parents would be there anyway they stopped coming home late in her senior year preferring to travel and lecture continuously and actively forget they even had a daughter. Why they bothered to have her in the first place was a mystery she had been trying to solve since kindergarten. But at least this worked in her favor now she still had somewhere to go even if it was a lonely somewhere. 

Willow began to try and drag herself up, but after hours of laying unmoving and emotionally broken in the street she found getting up to be harder than she thought and she was very tempted to just lie there. "Come on Willow it's time to pick yourself up because no one else will" she said to herself. "You are no longer allowed to pity yourself it's time to stand and face the mirror" 

After at least five minutes of effort she finally managed to get herself into a standing position and she slowly limped over to a wall, resting there as she prepared herself to make the long trip home alone and without magic. As she leaned against the wall she heard footsteps coming in her direction. Loud and angry footsteps and there had to be at least four different individuals making those loud noises. Footsteps were soon joined by angry inhuman grunting and shuffling as well as cruel voices that she could not understand, not all demons spoke English apparently. As they were headed her way she began to look for a hiding place, she would not use magic she told herself remembering the last time she had promised to stop her magic use and broke her word less than an hour after it was made. 

That promise was to Tara and it had cost her her soul mate, but this promise was to herself and the last thing she could afford was to let herself down as she was all she had left. But as she looked around there was nowhere good to hide she was too exposed on that street and not even the garbage cans would provide a good shelter, she would not be able to hide well there. However she started in that direction anyway because there was nowhere else and prepared to make herself as small as she could in an effort to hide. Before she could reach the cans however she saw the demons that were making the noise and worse they saw her so hiding was no longer an option. "No magic" she told herself as the large and muscled demons came her way "no magic". But perhaps this one time she should have made an exception...

Willow was in pretty bad shape and she could tell that she would die soon, but even if she could concentrate on something besides her pain long enough to do a spell she no longer had the strength. If she were able to lift her head and open more than one eye halfway she'd see that her blood was splattered all over the street and all over the five demons that were attacking her. So much blood that it was unlikely that she had much left for her heart to pump. Even more distressing than the various cuts, broken bones, and bruises was the fact that loops of her bowel were now protruding through the deep claw marks in her belly that ran from her left hip to her right shoulder. A large bite graced her left shoulder and flesh was missing from it showing the ivory bone and torn muscle, minor bite marks graced her body nearly everywhere else. Luckily, or unluckily however you looked at it, Willow cold barely feel anything anymore the world was growing dark and she was becoming numb to the pain as well as the cold.

Suddenly however the now faint sounds of the attacking demons stopped and she heard a new sound, heels and a woman's voice. Willow looked up as far as she could with her half open right eye and she was vaguely able to make out a dark, long haired woman in dark leather and wearing what looked like a black choker that had a silver bird on it, a raven. At this point Willow could no longer hear at all, but it seemed as if the woman was challenging the demons if their stances were any indication. Willow wanted to warn this woman to get away to safety and leave her to her fate, but the darkness closed in and she was no longer aware of anything


	2. One

Chapter One

Six and a half months later...

As Buffy walked down the stairs she was thinking about how much her red haired best friend pissed her off these days, especially when it came to her blonde haired friend. Even now she could hear their conversation in the kitchen and it made her want to kill Willow if only she could. Walking into the bright and sunny kitchen she could verify with her eyes what her nose told her from the stairs Tara was making pancakes lots of them. Blueberry, chocolate and plain funny shapes and rounds and in the center of the dining table there were already bowls upon bowls of cut fruits and bacon as well as stacks of toast and jugs of milk and OJ. 

"The Slayer awakens and graces us with her presence" Willow called from the counter where she sat next to Tara's bowls of batter.

Buffy barely glanced at the witch her eyes strictly for Tara who was once again crying as she cooked though her face wasn't as tear stained as it normally was this time of the day perhaps she was finally learning to ignore Willow. Speaking of the witch she didn't like being ignored and was likely to start in on Buffy soon if Buffy didn't get her to go away.

"Tara are you ok?" Buffy asked what has become a ritual question between the two of them at this time of day.

"Never better Buffy" Tara responded wanly an obvious lie that Buffy allowed to pass if only because she already knew the real answer that no Tara was not ok and wasn't likely to be ok again soon though she was looking better now than she had yesterday or the day before.

"What about me Buff? Aren't you gonna ask how I am this fine day? Or are you gonna try to pretend I don't exist again?" Willow said teleporting from the counter top to just in front of Buffy as she finished the last sentence.

"You aren't wanted here, go to hell where you belong" Buffy stated coldly unable to ignore Willow anymore now that she stood right in front of her.

"Aw don't you love me anymore Buff?" Willow asked in a hurt tone the beginning of tears in her big green eyes.

"No" came the firm and angry response from the already irritated slayer as she began to try and move around the now sobbing red head.

"Tara, Buffy doesn't love me anymore is that why she let me die? Do you still love me Tara? Or will you abandon me again like Buffy did when she left me in the dark and dirty street?!" The sobbing red head turned to the teary eyed blonde demanding a response to her query.

Buffy unable to help herself threw a punch at the back of Willow's head with all of her strength. If it connected it could kill the red head as the slayer was very physically powerful. However it didn't connect because even as Buffy heard Tara's horrified gasp she saw her fist move through Willow's head as if there was nothing there but air. Having become unbalanced by the powerful hit that did nothing she stumbled through Willow's body and turned around to face her again once she re-balanced herself putting herself quite deliberately between the two witches.

"Wow Buff you really don't love me anymore."

"Go to HELL!" Buffy yelled by now angrier than she was before now that she has given in to Willow's taunts. The red witch cocked her head at Buffy and after quirking one brow she studied Buffy as if she were a painting in a museum and then she smiled brightly at the slayer. Wounds began to open up on Willow's body and bright red blood poured down her form staining the blouse and jeans she wore and causing Tara to gasp again and nearly burn herself on the stovetop as she jumped backward.

"I'll see you tonight Baby" Will called as she blew Tara a kiss through bloody lips and then she disappeared finally. 

"Thank you Buffy" Tara said now dumping her burnt pancakes and getting ready to pour fresh batter in the pan hiding her face from the slayer. 

"No problem" Buffy answered "I just wish I could keep her from showing up at all".

Tara's shoulder's shook a little at this. Buffy moved over to her and placed an arm across her back comfortingly. "She is gone Tara and having the First pretend to be her is no good for anyone" Buffy said soothingly.

"I know Buffy and I know the others are just as affected as I am but part of me can't help but want that connection because I won't see her again otherwise" Buffy sighed but remained quiet and rubbed Tara's back because she had nothing to say to that, part of her wanted that connection too even though she knew it wasn't her friend. Willow was dead.

"Buffy could you wake up the others? They should eat before breakfast gets cold" Tara asked quietly.

"Sure" Buffy responded "just make sure to put some away for yourself this time you know those girls eat like starving teenage boys". Buffy turned and began making her way back out of the kitchen "I'll also see if Giles made any progress in finding a way to block the First from this house or at least from taking her form" Tara nodded at this and began plating the now done pancakes and preparing to make even more. Buffy sighed as she made her way upstairs she needed to make sure Tara ate more Willow would be upset if she knew how little Tara ate or slept since that night and the least she could do for her best friend was take care of her girl. Maybe she should take the girls out today keep them outside and make them spar and run laps. Faith would help and maybe it would be quiet enough then for Tara to get at least a little rest. Buffy went to get Giles up first because she wanted a chance to get to the food before any of the girls got up, she would need her strength if she was going to train slayerettes all day and night.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later that night Buffy and Faith split the girls into two groups and went out to patrol Sunnydale. So far the day had been full of physical exertion and the girls were running low on energy. Buffy was hoping to tire herself out tonight so that she could get something more than four hours of sleep so her group would not be turning in any time soon much to the girls' dismay. They walked through the second to last cemetery on Buffy's list and like the last one they went through there was very little activity in terms of vampires though the girls did get to try their luck with two slime demons who were too pathetic to put up much of a fight. 

They finished rounding the cemetery really quickly after the demon fight and so Buffy decided that if there weren't signs of activity in the last cemetery on the list she would not force the girls to stay out even longer. After all there was only about an hour to an hour and a half left before the First showed yet again. She could set her watch to how predictably the cruel apparition showed up wearing Willow's face. It seemed to like wearing Willow better than Buffy's mom or even Buffy herself. No doubt this was because it got more mileage out of the red head in terms of stronger reactions from more of Buffy's friends even Faith got freaked from time to time though she was better than most at not showing her reactions and so she avoided most of the First's attention. Buffy and Tara were its favorite targets as they had the strongest reactions and as hard as she tried Buffy couldn't be as indifferent as she wished because she still felt Willow's death was her fault. Tara left Willow for Willow's own good and she would no doubt have returned eventually to help Willow after enough time had passed.

But Buffy left Willow because she'd been pissed at her and ironically she'd been so angry with Will because Will had basically been doing the same thing that she was. Only her vice involved sleeping with the undead a fact that Xander never let her forget, whenever she looked at him she could see a bit of condemnation in his eyes. Their relationship was never the same after they learned that Will had been beaten to death and then eaten by demons after Buffy left her in the street so coldly. The fact that Spike of all people brought them this information only fuelled Xander's hatred of him and his anger at Buffy. It took a month and a half for Buffy to even get Xander to talk to her again and that was only due to Anya and the wedding otherwise he still might not be talking to her. Even now he did not speak or share with her as much as he used to Willow's death hit him extremely hard and at the wedding he stood alone while awaiting his bride because only his oldest friend was allowed at his side on that day and she wasn't able to be there. It was the single most gloomy wedding she'd ever been a part of despite the fact that it was the only wedding she'd ever been a part of or even attended and despite the fact that half all the guests were rowdy demons with short fuses not to mention Xander's drunken relatives.

If Buffy were truly honest with herself she would admit that a large part of her anger came from Willow ripping her from heaven and bringing her back to the Hellmouth, never ending apocalypse(s)/(ii) (whatever the plural is) and unending pain emotional and otherwise. But to admit that even to herself would be to betray everything she stood for, everything she was and most important her sister. The hardest thing in this world is to live in it she told Dawn, if only she realized how true this was at the time. She was supposed to want to be around for her sister right? Because without her Dawn had no family, since their mother was dead, to take care of her save their absent father. However that was only if you counted blood. In terms of their friends turned family there was Buffy's watcher/ pseudo father who lived in another country (except during a major crisis), one severely depressed witch, a depraved vampire, a profit obsessed ex demon and a carpenter. But even still to have grown up without Buffy and Joyce would have been very hard on Dawnie. Could she really even now still bear ill will against her red haired friend for looking out for Dawnie for allowing Buffy be around to protect and care for her sister and see to it that she became the confident and amazing woman she was meant to be? She couldn't allow herself to even think those thoughts anymore it made living with herself even harder to bear.

Buffy sighed at the thought of how much more gloomy her return to life had become without Willow. If she had been there Buffy might have at least eventually found some sort of resolution to the issues that tore at her daily. If only Willow had lived... If only Giles had at least been able to find anything that would allow them to block the first (a consistent reminder of her friend and the problems she'd left Buffy with) it was not good for her status as leader of the slayer army for the girls to see the tension between the Scoobies or the emotional reactions that the First always inevitably provoked not to mention it was no good for her sanity or temper either.


	3. Two

The Red Witch

Chapter Two

Xander was stuck in The Magic Box doing his husbandly duties not the fun ones, but the thou must not kill one's beloved even if she is annoying, shrill and repetitive ones. 

"Yes An I understand those crooks cared nothing for the American idea of capitalism and profit when they broke in The Magic Box. They should all be roasted alive then left to drown in the middle of the Arctic Ocean." 

"Are you being sarcastic Xander?" Came the suspicious question from the book shelves.

"No An, I'm being supportive" Xander lied smoothly while clearing unsalvageable merchandise from the floor in front of some shelves.

"It's just so upsetting Xander. I work so hard to live the American dream just like they could be doing, but no they choose to wreck other people's chances to make profits. The shop will be closed for at least one maybe two days while I re-stock and take inventory. The loss of those profits will set us back in my plans for us to conceive a child."

A crash is heard as Xander dropped the one glass from the shelves he was cleaning that did not end up smashed in the break-in. "Conceive a child... An, isn't that a little fast we just got married."

"Yes, but Xander one day I will open more shops and expand the business. I will need workers for that if we have children then I have a ready labor supply that I don't need to pay. And they will be trustworthy because I will raise them to love us, the store, and the beauty that is capitalism!"

"But An we just got married. We need time to um... spend just us and, and um prepare our lives for supporting our children! I would like to have more time to enjoy you while it's just us" He replied beginning to sweat a little, leaving his shelf and moving toward his wife while frantically trying to think up any argument he could to delay talks of children. He was so not ready for that yet Anya didn't even know how close they came to not getting married at all.

"Yes and I like that idea Xander there will be many orgasms in our future, but children take so long to grow before they are useful and I will need new workers sooner rather than later" She said with a wide smile turning away from Xander to pick up some more books that were on the floor and stack them on the shelves in an approximation of their original positions. 

"But An you wouldn't be able to not pay our children if you wanted to teach the joys of capitalism. Working at the store would be part of that lesson and work equals money so they would have to be paid something if you want to teach them right. Unless you'd rather they be socialists or communists." He said smiling to himself as he laid down his very convincing argument before his wife.

Anya shuddered and leaned against the shelf placing her right hand over her heart. "You're right we can't dare risk that. I'd rather pet bunnies than have that happen! Maybe we should wait and have children after the store has made more of a profit so they'd have a better example to learn from."

"Exactly" Xander said feeling extremely relived "And in the meantime if you need more workers you can hire Dawn or some of the Potentials you could practice for our children by teaching them how to be proper entrepreneurs when they aren't slaying."

"No, no, not the kleptomaniac! But your idea has merit some of the girls have promise." She visibly ruminated over that idea thinking of all the ways she could take advantage of Buffy's house guests. "The store is not at that point yet Xander, but we will need their help to get the store put together again sooner" she said decisively. 

"I'll call Buffy and ask her to bring some girls over later this morning, but for now I have to get to work. Maybe you should consider a security system with cameras to keep some of the would be thieves away" he said giving her a kiss and making his escape before she thought of other reasons they needed children right now. Perhaps he'd stop by Buffy's rather than just call he still had an hour before he had be at the new site hopefully the Willow First would be gone by the time he got there. That thing scared him, freaked him out and pissed him off more thoroughly than anything else so far. Luckily it didn't visit his home nearly as often as it did Buffy's. Still right now he would take on the First if it meant being able to avoid his wife.

_________________________________________________________________________________  
Faith sat on the couch listening to Xander relay the news of the break in at the Magic Box to the Scooby gang. Amanda, one of the newer potentials, had been telling some of the other girls about the news that she saw on TV earlier that day something about multiple break ins over the course of the night. Her gut was telling her that there was a supernatural connection with what could have been seen as normal everyday human crimes. Well her gut and the three demons with shopping bags that she and the girls in her group spent the better part of the night chasing. 

"It didn't look like they had stolen much, it was like they were looking for something specific and smashed whatever they didn't need. In a couple days Anya will have finished inventory and we know exactly what was taken" Xander said.

"I'll send half of the girls over to Anya once everyone has eaten and then I'll do a training session with the other half. They can trade later in the afternoon it'll be like a break for them."

"Buffy something is going on here" Faith stated suddenly. "On patrol last night the juniors and I chased down some weird red skinned demons with shopping bags. They were fast but I would have caught them if the juniors hadn't stumbled into a vamp nest. They didn't even try attack us or anything when we first saw them I figured they were up to something."

"Yeah Rona told me about that last night and this morning there was a report on the news about the hardware store, the grocery store, and a Bed, Bath and Beyond that were also hit last night" added Dawn.

"What would demons want from those stores sounds more like bored teenagers to me" Buffy shrugged and then turned to Giles. "You ever hear of demon thieves Giles?" 

"No at least not this type of petty thievery but that's not to say it never happened before. Perhaps if Faith can give us a better description Tara, Dawn and I can figure out what kind of demons they were. Faith maybe you can take a look at the shops in question, try to find out what was taken that will give us some clue as to what they were up to exactly."

Faith nodded more than willing to get out of research duty and away from the other slayer for the day. Unless Buffy asked her directly for help any of Faith's attempts to help out with training seemed to be taken as horning in on Buffy's territory. Faith was tired of fighting the small blonde to get her to accept Faith's help it didn't seem to be worth it. She was hardly going to corrupt the innocent teenagers nor did she want to take Buffy's place if that was even possible. Faith left the house as soon as she could declining Xander's offer of a ride, the longer she had away from the Summer's home the more she could relax and think about where her future would lead her once this mess with the First was over. 

Despite Buffy's thoughts to the contrary Faith had grown since her original Sunnydale days she was, dare it be said, a grown up now less impatient less impulsive and reckless. She had proven at least to herself that she was still a slayer first and she was capable of becoming someone she could be proud of. Buffy gave her little credit for her growth she still saw Faith as a last resort tool, to be called upon only when extremely desperate, but Faith was learning not to undervalue herself and she didn't need the First to tell her what she already knew about her place here in the Summer's household. She had a ways to go to earn the trust and respect of Buffy and the Scoobies something, like that was never built overnight. Despite the fact that she'd been here the better part of two months, ever since Buffy was shot, and with Angel's backing Buffy still seemed only to see her past self. You'd think she'd cut her a break it wasn't like she was expecting to be best buds with everyone now, but she was hoping that Buffy would give her a little slack. After all she did take over Buffy's responsibilities for a whole month while the blonde slayer healed completely from Warren's well placed bullet. She kept Buffy's friends safe while the other slayer was unable to do so herself.

Angel did tell her that redemption would be a hard path when he sent her here to help out, but it seemed much harder now than she ever expected. Still she had a job to do and if nothing else she'd do it as best as she could maybe it was better to just keep letting her actions speak for her and stop worrying about getting anyone else's approval especially Buffy's. The blonde's hands were not exactly squeaky clean anymore after all and maybe that was Buffy's real problem. Maybe Faith was a reminder of how much Buffy had lost, that there was a time when Buffy was the bright sparkly slayer and Faith was the dark evil one. But things were different now that they'd both grown up some there was no longer all black or all white anymore, that Buffy could work with Angel and Spike should have told her that, the two slayers were grey now. Buffy was stained not nearly as badly as she herself was, but she wasn't totally innocent either. At least the Scoobies were warming up to her a bit she may never be their favorite person but they recognized that she was different. It meant something to her that they could see that even though she would never admit to that. 

She had two and a half years to think about what went wrong the first time around while she sat in jail and she realized a few things. Back then a big part of the problem was that she always felt that she was measured against Buffy and found wanting. It played a big part in her turn to Mayor Wilkins and it was something the First was attempting to use against her now like the Mayor did before. She had to stop comparing herself and focus on being Faith otherwise she'd never get anywhere and she couldn't afford that. Angel worked hard those two and half years to show the legal system and to show Faith herself that she had more to offer if given a chance, that had she had someone in her corner before to guide and care for her none of those events in her past would have occurred. Once he'd helped her earn her freedom physically as well as mentally she promised to be worthy of his faith. Helping Buffy now was part of her debt to him and the beginning of a long road for her, but once the current crisis was over she was not tying herself here in Sunnydale or LA not if it meant being forever in Buffy's shadow. Cleveland had a Hellmouth or so she heard no doubt they would need a slayer there.


	4. Three

The Red Witch

Chapter 3

The dark haired woman lay atop the red head both were naked, panting and sweating from their exertions and the red head wore a look of pure bliss with a very smug smirk though her eyes were still closed as she waited for her equilibrium to return. The brunette however, did not look as happy though the red head had thoroughly seen to her satisfaction there was a matter that disturbed her greatly and was at the forefront of her mind even now in what should have been a very pleasurable afterglow. The brunette looked down upon her lover with a look of utter longing mixed with deep grief. It was as if the red head was not laying under her looking so relaxed easily touchable, but millions of miles away in a place she could not reach.

"Why so sad baby?" asked the red head after having finally opened her eyes. "Did I not make you happy Sidonie, my raven? Why are you crying?"

The brunette finally rolled off the other woman and snuggled into her side just now noticing the tears that fell unbidden down her cheeks. "I love you Red I love you so much I can't stand it, it hurts." She began to sob the emotion crashing over her leaving her feeling extremely vulnerable especially after the passion she'd just shared with her lover. "I want you mine for now for always. Don't leave me." She began to cry even harder now that she had been reduced to begging for something she knew without being told that she couldn't have. The brunette's eyes closed so she could avoid looking at her lover who'd repositioned herself for just that purpose. "Stay... stay with me Red"

The red head gently caressed the other woman's face feeling the tears build in her own eyes now as well. "Sid if were only a matter of what I wanted I'd never leave your side you know this. I'm so sorry I don't want to hurt you. I never ever wanted to do that ever. I wish that I could, but if I did you wouldn't love me anymore I would not be the woman you fell for. I would hate myself I would lose part of me forever."

"You can't stay because you'd lose part of your soul" Sid opened her eyes to gaze upon her lover once more, eyes still bright with tears. "I'm sorry, I knew before we began that I couldn't keep you, but I thought it wouldn't matter to me that you couldn't stay mine. I never thought I'd care this much now that daylight approaches" She looked deeply into bright green eyes filled with sorrow.

"Would it be easier for you if I left now? I could sleep somewhere else if this hurts you too much." The red head spoke mournfully the tears having left her eyes to pour down her cheeks, a physical representation of the pain both women felt at the reality of their impending separation.

"No no no!" Sidonie cried "You are still mine now and I will not give you up before I absolutely must. If I'm going to be forced to live on the memories of our love then I want as many as I can get and I want you screaming my name now!" The brunette began kissing her lover's body licking and nipping at the pale skin as she moved to reawaken their ardor. She proceeded down her lovers body the moans she was hearing encouraging her onwards. Reaching her goal she heard her name being panted out by the red head and she continued intent on using every bit of stamina she possessed to ensure her lover would bear remembrances of their time together for as long as possible. Prepare yourself lover she thought you won't be walking tomorrow. I might not be able to keep you, but she can't have you yet and she won't have you without knowing you were mine. And with that thought the brunette set about leaving marks everywhere that she could her lover too far gone in bliss to protest even if she wanted to.

"SIDONIE!"

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"Sidonie!" Tara cried waking up abruptly with tears wet on her face and her entire body in an extreme state of arousal that she felt a great need to satisfy. Her flesh hot, wet and throbbing as she moved to relieve the pressure. This wouldn't be the first time that she'd had a dream that left her longing for completion and Willow often featured very prominently in those dreams the brunette however was a total mystery. Finally climaxing Tara lay back upon her bed confusion now over taking her. I must be losing my mind she thought who dreams of their dead girlfriend with another woman and screams that woman's name. That wasn't something Will ever did to her whatever other problems they had she never doubted Will's faithfulness or her devotion not for one second nor had that ever been one of her fantasies. "So where the hell did that come from?" The blonde witch spoke aloud clearly irritated with herself.

"I don't know lover, but was that as good for you as it was for me?" Came a very familiar voice from right next to Tara. Tara turned to her side to see a naked and bloody Willow lying next to her, which caused her to jump nearly a foot off the bed and then crash to the floor while screaming loud enough to wake all the undead and not so undead in a five mile radius.

Buffy and Dawn crashed through her door into her room moments later neither armed but both alert and scanning for danger. They were soon followed by several of the potentials who had stopped and taken the time to grab the stake that Buffy insisted each girl kept near her always even when sleeping. Kennedy was the first of the potentials to enter the room, but she stopped upon seeing nothing but the First which could be categorized as dangerous and the others stopped behind her. The Willow First smirked at the response to Tara's screams and said calmly to Buffy "so sorry to wake you guys Tara and I were just having a little fun." Turning back to Tara it gave her a sexy grin. "As much as I enjoyed our time together this morning your friends just ruined the mood. Catch ya later babe." 

The bed was mow empty and Tara slumped down on the floor running her fingers through her hair and sighing a glance at the clock show that it was only 4 am, but she wouldn't be able to sleep anytime soon. "This is going to be a long day" Tara spoke to the ceiling.

 

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Dawn was struggling to not fall asleep in her demonology book, how embarrassing would that be she thought looking over at the potentials spread on the floor each with their own book and glazed expression. This was going nowhere fast if only Buffy would let her have some coffee then maybe it wouldn't take a hour to read one page. Really she looked down at the book once again, she was still on page 456 the same page she happened to glance at for the first time exactly twenty-nine minutes ago according to her watch and she still couldn't tell what it said. Words had begun to blur on the page as she began to lose her battle to not embarrass herself in front of the other girls. Damn those 4am wake up calls, demonic high schools and evil task master librarians she was still a growing girl she needed her rest and to think she still had homework to do after this four pages of algebra and an essay on the universality of the themes in Hamlet. Dawn sighed giving up and resting her head on the ancient book maybe Dr Torres would be happy if she compared Hamlet to The Lion King. Disney steals all its themes from other places anyway and it's not like that would require too much extra research because she knew that movie by heart every scene and every line. It's better than anything Buffy would have come up with was her last conscious thought before sleep over took her.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) Dawn's impromptu nap was interrupted not two minutes later by Faith walking in and clapping loudly for the benefit of all the research girls. "Look alive shorties" Faith called "we need some answers and you guys snoozing is not gonna help us catch some sticky fingered demons." Dawn luckily hadn't started drooling yet Giles would have killed her. She turned the to the page ignoring the argument Faith got into with Kennedy about Faith's lack of research time. Really that was a battle Kennedy couldn't win Dawn thought she should be grateful Faith was not stuck researching with them the Slayer was not one for staying still and even Buffy had problems with research, too much extra energy. Now that she had a little adrenaline burst from her rude awakening she could actually see the picture on the page and read the caption properly.

"I found them!" She cried out coming to her feet in her excitement. "Here page 456, Wouj Trezor demons."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The scooby meeting that followed Dawn's discovery was a bit tense as they normally were these days. Dawn felt as though everything had gone to shit since Buffy died and came back and Willow's death had only made things worse. It seemed that Buffy resented being alive and sometimes they way Buffy looked made Dawn think that her sister resented her. After all if the was no Dawn, Buffy might feel freer to leave the mortal coil yet again and return to her peaceful place in Heaven. When Buffy was gone Willow and Tara served as Dawn's surrogate parents and as much as she'd missed both her mother and sister it felt so nice to have two loving parental units who doted on her. They made sure that she got to school and was fed properly, spent time with her and truly listened to her, and on those nights when her pain became too much she could sleep in between them in their bed and feel the love they shared cover and comfort her like a soft and warm blanket on cold morning. It was nights like those when they gave up their own alone time to be there for her that she wished that she was their daughter and though it did feel as if she were betraying her mother the was a time just once or twice when she actually did slip and call Willow or Tara mommy.

Dawn felt guilty because the last thing that she'd said to Willow was she hated her and she slapped her. Had she known that it would be the last time she was going to see her Willow shaped mom she would have told her just how much she loved her and forgiven her then for not being perfect for being human with human faults. Dawn also felt angry almost all the time at Willow for not coming home, at Buffy for holding on to her own anger and not truly being there for her little sister, and she was even angry at Tara for withdrawing into her grief. Sure Tara still took care of Dawn better than Buffy was doing actually they still had their milkshake dates and movie nights and it was Tara more often than not who saw to it that Dawn's basic needs were being met, but Tara was never completely there. It was like she was a robot Tara caring and kind and nurturing, but it was a program that made her act that way and not a soul... Tara acted as if she were missing half her soul... 

"So to clarify Faith," Giles spoke up nudging Dawn out of her heavy thoughts. "The demons you encountered stole only paint, wood, rope, a couple of random kitchen machines and food?"

"Yep that about sums it up G-man kinda lame stuff to steal if they had just a hundred bucks they coulda brought most of it no problem."

"Well it is rather hard to shop when you are an obvious demon" Anya told them defending her fellow demons even if they were thieves. "I doubt they would have been able to find jobs either, though I would have hired them at least to do stock or take inventory it would have freed me up to do more and have longer hours." Anya looked very thoughtful at this point rubbing her chin and staring off into nothing. "Maybe I should advertise for a demon employee."

"An, please no demon employees I'm sure you can find a couple of bored teenagers who can put in a few hours and not risk hiring demons that might eat your customers or your husband."

"I think Xander has a point there Anya" two cents courtesy of Buffy. But Anya didn't respond still lost in thought about economics and time management.

"Do we know what these Wouj Trezor demons took form the Magic Box yet Anya?" asked Giles in an effort to get the meeting back on track.

"No I haven't completed inventory yet so tomorrow I'll have a better idea but I'm pretty sure they stole many spell ingredients as well as books. I'm just not sure which ones"

"The book said these demons were pretty harmless I mean they are vegetarians and they have been known to travel around maybe they're just on vacation and ran out of supplies." Dawn put in.

"I'd say that this was a bad vacation spot but they are demons and hellmouths tend to attract those. Still I'd prefer a tropical island to a hellmouth and I was a demon for over a thousand years." 

"Well in any case it doesn't seem as if they will give us much trouble so on another topic I'm leaving tomorrow morning" Giles said taking his glasses off to clean them.

"Why do I have the feeling that my house is about to be pushed over capacity?" 

"Because Buffy my contacts have located what could be another potential in South America. She was attacked by bringers but she lived and is now in hiding so I'm going to bring her back here it won't take long."

"Well I've had enough of the potentials for one day I could use a break Faith wanna patrol with me for old times' sake?"

Faith hesitated for a moment before agreeing and both slayers got up to grab their jackets and weapons. Dawn sat at the table as everyone else prepared to leave as well, watching a very quiet Tara who seemed to still be shook up from this morning. She normally didn't speak up much anyway but you'd hardly notice she was there tonight. Dawn decided that her homework could wait one more night perhaps it was time for her to take care of Tara, it probably would be best if she had company tonight especially if the First showed yet again. They could both use a good night's sleep.


	5. Four

The Red Witch

Chapter 4

Buffy had no idea why exactly she invited Faith along with her on patrol it had been her intention to patrol alone and get some fresh air maybe clear her head a little and think. The constant tension between her and her friends and the strain in all of her current relationships was hitting her hard. All of it was just adding to the pain and confusion she still felt. Sometimes she wished she could just stop feeling and go back to the way things were before when she hadn't left her best friend to die and she hadn't killed herself to once again save the world (something she never did get any credit for outside her circle of friends). However, whatever her subconscious was thinking before she was glad now that it had made her speak up. This current scene wasn't anything she wanted to deal with alone. Just when she had enough of the squabbling constantly hungry teenage girls that took up all the space in her home Giles leaves to bring back another and she and Faith stumble upon what's most likely a potential lying near death in a cemetery. 

The doctors at the hospital were able to tell them that this girl, Shannon her id had said, would live and the during the brief time she and Faith were able to speak with the girl before she returned to unconsciousness they were able to confirm that as well as learn a few disturbing things. The First had a new agent a priest named Caleb and he had something that belonged to her. What it was she had no idea, but she had no doubt that he'd meant to get her to come to him it was most likely some kind of trap. Still she would go as soon as possible if only because she wanted to make sure whatever he had wasn't something vital and to size up the new enemy. But she did not expect that this would be easy or that she would be able to spring this trap and not get caught in it.

The next morning Anya called a scooby meeting for the early afternoon, which suited Buffy just fine since she wanted a little time figure out who this Caleb guy was before she informed the others of what she planned to do with the things she and Faith found out last night. She thought that it would be best ho have at least a little idea of who he was and where he might be before she started planning to take on his evil lair. It wouldn't hurt if she had some idea of what kind of resources he had at his disposal either. She would leave the potentials in Faith's hands and with Tara at the hospital looking after Shannon she felt everything was secure enough for her to spend the morning poking around. She would start in the area where Shannon said she'd been and try to find something there that might help and she would have to get Dawn to google him after the meeting so that she'd have a little more to go on.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

After hours of walking and sherlocking around in the woods Buffy was no closer to figuring out the new guy than she was when she started. Soon it would be time for the meeting and she had so very little to go on. That meant when she and Faith took the girls out tonight they'd have to try to at least figure out where Caleb was holed up maybe follow a bringer or something and try to spy out anything that would help her plan the assault. She reached the Magic Box before she expected to having been lost in her thoughts about their newest enemy and what to do about him and from the look of things she the last to arrive. Anya spoke up as soon as she saw Buffy enter the store.

"Buffy finally, now we can get started."

As Buffy got herself situated at the table she looked to Anya with a raised brow wondering why the ex-demon seemed to be so unsettled. "What's going on she asked?" Knowing without being told that it wasn't anything good these days it rarely was anything but bad.

"I finally completed the inventory and I now know exactly what the Trezor took. They took several of my books on portals of the inter dimensional variety as well as common spell ingredients for forming those portals."

"There are other types of portals?" Buffy asked not being familiar with any other kind.

"Of course." Anya stated "portals are most commonly used between dimensions, but a good witch or warlock would know how to use them to fold space for traveling between large distances. Though the amount of energy and effort that it takes to do this makes it very inefficient means of travel and so most find others way to get around like teleporting or a car."

"So I guess we're assuming that these demons want to make a portal to another dimension." Faith put in "any chance someone knows where they want this portal to go?"

"We don't know" answered Xander. "But we can assume that wherever they are trying to go it won't be good for us. The last inter dimensional portal we ran into did not end well for us."

Tara, Anya, Buffy, Dawn and Xander could vividly recall the last time they saw such a portal and all five were momentarily overwhelmed by the memories. "Buffy we need to stop these demons before they attempt to open this portal" Anya stated as soon as she'd recovered from the brief trip down memory lane.

"Yeah we should get to them before they open a door to some kind of hell dimension."

"They don't have the ability to open a portal" Tara stated startling the others who had grown used to her not speaking.

"If they can't open a portal they why are we worried about them?" Dawn asked looking confused.

"The problem is that they'll attempt to open the portal whether or not they can actually do it is irrelevant."

"I don't understand" Buffy said turning to Tara for an explanation Faith , Dawn and Xander looked at her as well they were also unaware of the true problem. Tara looked to Anya who spoke up on the blonde witches' behalf when she saw that Tara was not going to say anymore. 

"Opening a portal is a very complex process that is easy to get wrong. Most portals have specific requirements depending on where they lead, but there are things that are needed anytime someone attempts a portal. The main requirement is a power source usually the caster acts as their own power source so long as the portal is not too draining, which is why normally only magical beings attempt this. However, technically anyone could create a portal so long as they have a strong enough source of energy say witches blood or thunderbird eggs."

"So are these Wouj Trezor demons magical?" Xander asked.

"No and that is the problem. These demons are scavengers that travel around in large bands looking for supplies for their clan. They are typically non-violent unless provoked, but they also don't usually steal from stores or try things like this at least not according to the book Dawn found. So I think that we have to be prepared for anything with these guys."

"I still don't get it" Faith spoke up. "If these guys are not magical and are unlikely to open a portal anyway, why do we care? Why not let them do their thing and worry about something more important like this Caleb guy?"

Tara sat forward in her chair and the scoobies instantly gave her their attention. Buffy watched her more carefully than the others observing the other blonde's body language and she wasn't happy with the weariness or the agitation Tara displayed. "We care because these demons aren't magical. If they were they would probably have better idea of how to open portals correctly and we could worry about this less. The problem with any portal is that no matter where the destination is if it is done incorrectly the spell will cause a lot of damage. Anya told me earlier that one of the things that was stolen was a focusing crystal. This tells me that the demons plan to put a lot of power into this portal so they are probably trying to get somewhere very far from here and if their group is as big as a typical band or even a full clan, which can be up to 50 even 100 individuals, they would need to hold this portal open for awhile. Meaning that they'll be channeling a large amount of energy for an extended period. If this is done improperly that energy will not be containable and it will surge back and the crystal they chose will make that surge much more powerful."

"Yeah these guys obviously have no idea what they were doing" Anya added "Because if they did they'd have stolen one of my quartz crystals instead of the sapphire, the imperfections in the quartz would have prevented the backlash as the crystal would just be destroyed and only the demons closest to the crystal would have died and it would do the same thing the sapphire will if less efficiently."

"Right," Tara nodded "the crystal they chose will magnify the backlash so that if enough power is put into the spell we could end up with half of Sunnydale underground."

"While a huge crater might actually help up us with the First especially if the hellmouth and Caleb end up buried under thousands of tons of what was once Sunnydale a lot of people will end up hurt or killed as well. Not to mention that if the demons failed to find anything powerful enough to use for their attempt they will most likely go after the blood of powerful witch or say a former key in order to get the juice they will need. "

"So we now have to worry about Dawn or Tara being kidnapped so that our fangless demons can blow up half the town as well as a psychopathic priest" Xander spoke up exasperatedly. "Just when start to think things couldn't get worse they do" 

 

"Well obviously we have to deal with the Wouj Trezor first, but we still need info on this Caleb guy so here is the plan..." Buffy handed out marching orders and was hoping that kicking these demon's asses wouldn't take long cause they had other things to do come night  
__________________________________________________________________________

Faith found herself trapped behind bars yet again and this time not because of anything she'd done. She growled once again at Anya and Buffy as her pacing took her once again into the corner of the room where they stood. "Non-violent vegetarian scavengers my ass" she ground out turning on her hell and shooting daggers with her eyes at the demons grouped on the far side of her new prison. How did we get into this she asked herself this mission should have been disgustingly easy, get in smash a few heads and get out again. So of course it all had to go wrong, so very completely wrong.


	6. Five

The Red Witch

Chapter 5

Faith was pretty pissed. Buffy's stellar plan turned into a complete clusterfuck, but maybe she was being a little hard on Buffy. After all Faith was fully behind Buffy's plan aside from one minor detail and it was probably one she herself would have come up with had she been asked to provide a plan. Sighing Faith leaned against the wall next to Tara away from Buffy and Anya. Tara was looking as tired and sad as a puppy that had been kicked one too many times then left outside in the rain, but at least she gave Faith something to think about other than the fact that she was confined in a small space with fourteen other women. Just like prison. Well Faith thought to herself at least we've got the best seats in the house for the destruction of Sunnydale, couldn't have paid for a better one. There was the small extremely unlikely chance that Xander and Spike would break from their info gathering mission and rescue them or that Giles would have made it to Peru have found the girl and be even at this moment on his way back to Sunnydale to rescue them. However, the boys had no actual way of knowing that a rescue was necessary and given that it had only been about eight hours or so since Giles left she wasn't gonna hold her breath waiting for him to show. They would have to get themselves out somehow. How did they end up in this position anyway these demons were supposed to be total pansies.

Five hours earlier...

Faith watched skeptically as Buffy sent Xander and Spike on a mission to locate any and every detail they could about the life and times of Father Psychopath and the First. Those two alone together was a recipe for disaster. If Xander didn't bring Spike back in a plastic baggie then Spike would be dragging Xander back in pieces. Faith thought Buffy would have been better off sending either Spike or Xander with one of the juniors or even sending one with the both of them to referee any fights. But Buffy had other ideas for the potentials and she needed to send someone who could take care of themselves and who knew what to look out for. Tara and Anya were needed here so that left those two unfortunately. At least they could be counted on to do what they were sent out to do even if this part of the plan was bound to end in death or something.

Once the vamp and the boy wonder had been sent on their way Buffy assigned two of the strongest potentials and two of the newest to babysit Shannon until she was ready to be released or until Buffy released them from that duty. The four of them would be armed and should be able to handle themselves and Shannon would no doubt appreciate the company since none of them could have their families near. She then split the other twelve girls into two groups one under Faith's command and the other with Buffy then it was decided that Tara would join Buffy's group and Anya Faith's so that each group had a magic user who could help track their quarry. The needed the numbers for the confrontation that would occur if either group ran into the demons since a band could have up to fifteen members. The problem in this stage of planning however was Dawn.

Buffy and Faith seriously disagreed on this point. Buffy wanted Dawn safe which was understandable. Tara had informed them that she was not powerful enough to be useful for portal creation so assuming that the Wouj Trezor knew how to read power they would not be after her. Dawn however was just powerful enough to be attractive to them. Her status as the key even if she was in human form gave her a magical energy that would more than satisfy the requirements, in fact as the key she was meant to be used for portal creation. So even if Dawn herself was never able to tap into this mystic energy she could be used by anyone else who knew how. Buffy's plan to keep Dawn out of the picture by either by leaving her home alone or forcing her to stay at the hospital was silly. The two slayers got into a fight over this that was almost physical because Dawn wished to go with them and Faith agreed that she should. 

The safest place for Dawn would be near Buffy. Leaving her home alone or with the slayerettes would just be inviting the demons to kidnap the kid. At least out with them Dawn was in a large group that was highly armed and had a slayer for backup even if they were going towards the demons. After all like the kid said she was older than Buffy was when she first went out slaying and it was better for her to be helpful with them than vulnerable alone. Of course if the demons wanted her then it wouldn't matter much either way because they would attempt to attack her in any case and Buffy or someone else would still have to save her. But you'd think that she told Buffy to hand Dawn over to the demons by the way Buffy looked at Faith, still in the end Dawn and Faith got their way if only because Tara agreed with them. 

Since the locator spell Tara and Anya did was unable to give them a location for their demons they were forced to take the two groups and attempt to track the demons starting where they were most likely to be given what they wanted to do. It took Faith and her group four hours to locate the abandoned two story warehouse that the demons had set up shop in. A very long and frustrating four hours because Anya's tracking charm was as little help as her locator spell. Faith called Buffy to give her the location but having started out on the opposite side of town it would take Buffy's group some time to reach them so Faith was prepared to wait before making a move at least until they were able to figure out how many demons there were and how far into the spell they'd gotten. However, they didn't have time to even attempt to spy on the place properly before they were ambushed.

The three demons Faith saw in the cemetery that night were barely taller than she was with reddish brown skin and stubby ivory horns poking through the coarse and curly dark brown hair on their head. They were built like runners with lean musculature, they wore what looked like rough-spun dark cream cloth pants and a shirt of the same material that was little more than two strips of fabric crossed over the chest in a v shape and no shoes. Those three demons she saw then inspired no fear at all if they had been hornless she could easily have mistaken them for human teens. In fact when she first saw them she had assumed that they were human teens until she saw their faces. The ones who snuck up behind her group were very, very different. These eight were much older and taller than the first ones and not a one of them was under 6'2". Their horns were twice as long as the others as well as their hair, which flowed wild and untamed down their backs. These guys were built solidly with well defined and bulging muscles and they were a deeper shade of red-brown than the others. They wore only black cloth pants with a rope belt and dagger as well as necklaces made from shells and bones, they would never be mistaken for human and they scared the crap out of Faith with how easily they were able to take her down.

For all her slayer strength Faith was barely a match for two of them. She was unable to see how well Anya and the girls were doing because she was fighting on the defensive unable to get in a strike of her own until one of her opponents was knocked off balance a little by a well thrown rock from Rona. At that point she was able to concentrate on her opponents and turn the tide. She would have won that battle if it wasn't for the demon that came up from behind her and knocked her unconscious. 

When Faith regained consciousness she and the others were locked in the rear quarter of the warehouse's ground floor. At first she could see nothing that was holding any of them in that spot granted they were in an area far from any doors, but she couldn't see anything aside from the three walls that surrounded them which kept them in place until she tried to move towards the front of the warehouse. Anya tried but was unable to grab Faith before she ran smack dab into an invisible energy barrier, a force field and oh did that hurt like a bitch. Faith was just barely able to keep herself from screaming out loud as she rebounded away from the barrier but she couldn't completely stop a verbal expression of her pain as she fell to the floor. "Shit, shit, motherfucker!"

"That is a demon barrier" Anya said as she moved to help Faith get back on her feet. "No one but a demon permitted by the caster will be able to cross it. That big one with all the body art is their magician and he also seems to be the leader. He cast the barrier."

"I thought these bastards were not magical." Faith said angrily, rubbing her aching backside which she had fallen on very hard.

"So did I." Came the succinct reply.

"Why can't we hear them" asked Rona who was covered in very painful looking bumps and what was sure to be a lot of bruises.

"It is part of the magic of the barrier we can't hear them and they won't hear or see us unless tattoo guy wants them to. And any non-demons on the other side of that barrier won't be able to see or hear us either." replied Anya tersely.

It was now that Faith finally took a good look at the other girls trapped with them behind the barrier. All of them were banged up pretty badly even Anya. There was a lot of bruising, black eyes, split lips, and many scratches from sharp claws however there were no broken bones or serious injuries. It seems their demon friends went easy on them, which pissed Faith off more to know that. That she had been taken down by demons that were going out of their way to not use excessive force on them. These were no fangless losers they were warriors, so some voyeuristic Englishman got all his info about these particular demons very wrong and that was going to cost Faith and her group. She had no idea what the demons wanted from them but she respected them more now than she had before. And she was left to wait on a rescue from Buffy.

Faith watched the warriors gathered at the east wall of the warehouse there were fourteen altogether six teenagers and eight mature ones including the leader. The room was empty save a few leftover pallets, some wooden crates and a plastic folding table and lots of dust. The demons had taken some of the empty crates to make one long table which they had perpendicular to the east wall, on it lay a very large and very dead pig whose throat had been cut to the bone. Under the pig's neck was a large Tupperware bowl into which blood still dripped. Faith watched for nearly half an hour as the tattooed demon warrior used a paint brush to cover the east wall in a series of runes that spiraled counterclockwise, with the pig's blood. Already on the wall was another series of runes in what looked to be black paint these lay in a square formation around the area where the blood runes were being drawn. Altogether the runes would cover the wall entirely. Halfway done the leader stopped painting and turned to one of the older demons who had a large blue stone on his shell and bone necklace. The leader spoke to him rapidly then blue stone pointed out nine warriors including two of the teens as well as himself and the left the building through one of the doors on the west wall.

Fifteen minutes later the demons returned with Buffy's group in hand two of the potentials as well as Buffy were unconscious and were being carried in, the others were being marched in their hands restrained by their captors. Tara had one of the demon's rope belt tied around her head in such a way that a knot of it was forced between her teeth preventing her from speaking. "Well so much for being rescued by Buffy" one of the Potentials standing behind Faith said morosely. Faith could only agree. The tatted demon walked over to the barrier and placed a hand on it, without getting shocked, as one by one the demons shoved their new prisoners behind the barrier even the unconscious ones. However when it came to Dawn's turn to be shoved in as she was the last one the leader stopped her guard and gestured towards the wall. Faith untied Tara's rope bond as she watched two of the teenage demons hog-tie Dawn and place her near the empty folding table. Buffy began to stir as the demons went back to the east wall and the leader worked on his painting. 

TRWTRWTRW

Dawn was beginning to wish that she'd listened to Buffy and stayed home or had gone with the other girls to sit with Shannon. It was very uncomfortable to be hog-tied and forced to lay on a very dusty, dirty and cold concrete floor. She watched as the tattooed demon finished up his rune drawing and the other demons gathered up their supplies from the second floor and piled them near the crate table. The tattooed demon done with his painting, placed his bowl and brush on the crates near the pig he then pulled a large light blue gem from his pocket. The other demons scrambled to put space between them and the tattooed guy as he began to chant in a language Dawn had never heard. As she watched the black paint runes began to glow lightly but the blood runes remained stubbornly dark. 

The tattooed demon stopped his chant after a few minutes passed in which the blood runes still failed to glow and looked angrily at the wall. He then gazed at the wall for a few minutes as if wrestling with a decision then he turned to his demon buddies and spoke to them in another language Dawn had never heard before. One of the younger demons went to the pile of supplies that had been gathered and pulled out two new Tupperware bowls. The tattooed leader then turned to Dawn and picked her up off the floor placing her onto the plastic table. Dawn suddenly got a very bad feeling about this when she saw bowl boy coming her way so she began to squirm and scream out for Buffy. Looking toward the rear wall where she was sure they'd put her sister she began to scream louder. "Buffy! Buffy! Tara! Buffy!"

The leader untied her and before she could kick him and try to run another demon one of the young ones came and held down her legs two more held her hands while the leader pulled her until her shoulders were just barely off the table. Her arms were pulled then tied, each to a separate table leg, so that they were strained down making her shoulders ache badly though her arms were not tied tightly enough to keep her completely immobile. Her legs were tied off to the other end of the table though they were tied first together. Dawn screamed as best she could in the awkward position they had her tied in. Then as she saw the leader with the bowls and the knife she began to cry. "Buffy! Buffy! Mommy! Mommy! Willow!" 

TRWTRWTRW

On the far side of the barrier Buffy was beating herself bloody thrashing against the force field attempting however fruitlessly to get through it to her sister, nothing Faith or the potentials tried stopped Buffy from hurting herself. In fact trying to stop her only resulted in two broken arms, broken and fractured ribs, and lots of bruising among the girls as well as Faith's broken nose, two black eyes and a rather sore and aching belly which would probably bruise very badly if she didn't have internal bleeding from the force of the kick she took. Faith held her belly with a sore arm as she searched vainly along the three solid walls for any way out of their prison. The girls who were still conscious and mobile helped her each searching for any way that would lead out to Dawn.

Anya sat atop Tara who was just as crazed as Buffy but lacked the slayer strength to overpower the ex-demon so she could throw herself against the energy barrier. Anya watched the demons from where she was while struggling to come up with any spell that she could use to open the barrier. She tried whatever she came to mind whether or not she had the necessary ingredients whether or not the spell was actually relevant to their situation. But nothing she did affected anything beyond the energy field and nothing that worked actually did anything useful. So they were all forced to watch as the demon leader cut Dawn's wrists and caught her blood in the two bowls. After a short period of time Dawn began to move weakly upon the table then stopped moving altogether.

Buffy stopped fighting and sank to her knees on the floor and vomited harshly, blood showing among the remnants of her lunch. She then curled in a ball on the floor and sobbed. Tara ceased fighting Anya and stared forward blankly no longer seeming to see anything. Faith pulled Buffy into her lap and stroked her hair offering the other slayer what little comfort she could. Anya with tears streaming down her face held Tara and the potentials looked on the gruesome scene before them with various expressions of shock and horror.

TRWTRWTRW

The tattooed leader took both bowls and with a fresh brush began painting over the old runes with the new blood. The blue stone demon tore the cloth shirt from one of the younger demons and used it to bind Dawn's wrists he then cut her bonds and lay her fully upon the table. As he turned away from the wall he happened to glimpse a shadow emerging from the gloom that cloaked a corner of the west wall. As he turned toward it for a better look it resolved into a human woman. A long flame haired woman wearing black leather pants and heeled boots, a blood red silk shirt under a long black leather jacket and a black chocker with a silver raven pendant on it. This woman's eyes burned bright green with an inner fire and as he stared others who saw him staring turned to look and seeing her they began to stare as well. She began to walk slowly towards them and the blue stone felt fear in a way he had not since he was first blooded a warrior. 

The leader finally noticed the preoccupation of his band and turned from his task. As the woman moved she ignored his warriors and set path that ended three feet from him. "Who are you?" He asked her in his milk tongue feeling a passionate heat and hunger, lust, build within him in response to her powerful presence though she was not of his kind.

"I am the gatekeeper." She replied in his mother tongue "I've come to keep the path."

TRWTRWTRW

On the far side of the barrier not a sound could be heard and if a pin dropped it would be loud in the silence not that any of the women trapped there would respond to the sound. They were like statues each of them staring at the new player on the field. Tara back from her brief trip into nothingness and despair broke the silence with one word, which was quickly swallowed into the ether.

"Willow."


	7. Six

The Red Witch

Chapter 6

Xander had the great misfortune to have been forced to spend the last five hours in the company of one supremely annoying bleach haired vamp, and there was no end in sight to his torture. Finding the information Buffy requested was taking a lot more effort than Xander had assumed it would. He and his shadow were also hampered by the abundance of sunlight for these past five hours. Luckily this time of year the nights were long and so sundown came fast allowing them more freedom of movement, finally they were able to leave the tunnels Spike relied upon during the daylight hours. At least something had come from their hours of pretending to be rats in an underground maze. A quick chat and some well placed threats with a few of Spike's demon pals got them a general location for the eyeless freaks so they should be able to find their nest without too much trouble. They also managed to run into a vamp who happened to owe Spike a few favors and had agreed to get them police records for the priest if any to pay off his debt. However those they'd have to wait for until tomorrow so they didn't have much solid info to take home at this moment.

Which is why when Spike suggested that he and Xander track the bringers to their evil lair and do a little reconnaissance, Xander agreed. Despite his eagerness to go home he did not want to go there without something more to show for it. He recognized that they were on the losing end of this battle with the First so far and that they needed as much intel as they could get as fast as they could get it to regain some even footing. 

So about half an hour after the sun had set Xander found himself outside of an old vineyard in the trees that surrounded the property. Spike had assured him that the bringer they'd followed in didn't notice them and that no one else had either. Xander didn't get the feeling that they'd been found out or that they were being watched though he did feel as strong sense of foreboding deep in his gut. It was enough that he'd opened his mouth to tell Spike that they'd come back when Buffy and Faith were available, when Spike began dashing away from the trees onto the open exposed lawn. This left Xander little choice but to follow quickly and hope that the half a minute or so it took them to reach cover near the main building wouldn't go noticed by their enemies.

Traveling through the building they were lucky enough to find very few bringers who they were easily able to avoid. There was no sign however of the priest, which was probably best because no good could from meeting him on his home field and he would be more likely than the blind bringers to notice Xander and Spike. They made it down some stairs into a large stone walled room that was covered in wooden casks that had most likely held wine at one point or another and here their luck ran out. They were so busy looking for any sign of something that might belong to Buffy be it human or otherwise that the quiet bringers were able to sneak up on them. They were at least twelve of them surrounding Spike and Xander which wasn't good in terms of odds, but Xander at least had the very good idea of bringing a small ax with him and Spike had a dagger as well as vamp strength. 

In the ensuing battle Xander managed to hold his own. He killed two of the robed minions and took a second to track Spike's progress noting that the vamp had knocked out one of the bringers and had killed two more before engaging a fourth and fifth. As Xander was beginning to believe that they'd be able to finish off these guys and retreat back to Buffy's, it happened.

Xander had took on a third bringer and was seconds away from cutting it in half when he was grabbed from behind so unexpectedly that he lost his grip on the axe. Xander then realized his mistake, he and Spike had tunneled their vision to only include the enemies that were currently in the room neither of them kept an eye on the stairs they came down or Xander would have seen and Spike would have been able to warn Xander about Caleb's arrival to the party. He felt himself being tossed against one of the walls and the breath was knocked out of him so he could do nothing but collapse to the floor and try to breathe. 

"Well lookie here" Caleb spoke as the remaining bringers swarmed Spike. "The slayer sends us her pet vampire and her boy. I was expecting more."

"You always expected more from her than she had." Said the First appearing a foot from Xander once again wearing Willow's face. "Xander knows, don't you Xan-man, Buffy is facing something she can't handle and she is lost because of that. All her little problems keep her from seeing the bigger picture. She has lost her way as they all have including you."

The sounds of Spike struggling against the pile of bringers that had him down were louder in the wake of Willow First's words. Xander dragged himself up the wall still struggling to regain his equilibrium, but determined not to die here in this hellhole. He spotted his ax a few feet from Caleb and made a plan to get to it and hurt the priest enough that he and Spike could escape. 

"You underestimate us" he said to the thing that wore his friend like clothing. "You expect that we will fail so you won't see it when we take you down. Buffy is stronger than you give her credit for even I can see that despite all our problems." Xander had managed to get himself in a position that was almost a straight line away from his ax so he got ready to make his move.

Caleb must have noticed what he was doing or sensed him getting ready to do something because the next thing Xander knew Caleb had him pressed up against the wall on his tiptoes."You're the one who sees everything aren't you? Well let's see what we can't do about that."* Caleb said just before taking his thumb and pressing it into Xander's right eye putting it out. The intensity of the pain was such that he barely noticed Spike knocking Caleb off him or picking him up and half-guiding half-dragging him up the stairs and out of the vineyard. It was a long time before Xander was able to take notice of much of anything but he was able to think fleetingly of Anya of how much she would be hurt by his getting so seriously injured. He wanted nothing more now than to be with his wife preferably somewhere with lots of morphine.

 

Note: *= taken from season 7 episode 18


	8. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: In this chapter these demons do not speak English or any other Human language so whenever they speak to each other or Willow it is in a demon language. 
> 
> Note2: Part of this was written while I listened to JLo's On the Floor (ft. Pit bull) and Sisqo's Thong Song (Remix), so if you need a soundtrack listen to those songs during the action (you'll know when ;) ).

The Red Witch 

Chapter 7

The tattooed leader took both bowls and with a fresh brush began painting over the old runes with the new blood. The blue stone demon tore the cloth shirt from one of the younger demons and used it to bind Dawn's wrists he then cut her bonds and lay her fully upon the table. As he turned away from the wall he happened to glimpse a shadow emerging from the gloom that cloaked a corner of the west wall. As he turned toward it for a better look it resolved into a human woman. A flame haired woman wearing black leather pants and heeled boots, a blood red silk shirt under a long black leather jacket and a black choker with a silver raven pendant on it. This woman's eyes burned bright green with an inner fire and as he stared others who saw him staring turned to look and seeing her they began to stare as well. She walked slowly towards them and the blue stone felt fear in a way he had not since he was first blooded a warrior. 

The leader finally noticed the preoccupation of his band and turned from his task. As the woman moved she ignored his warriors and set path that ended three feet from him. "Who are you?" He asked her in his milk tongue feeling a passionate heat and hunger, lust, build within him in response to her powerful presence though she was not of his kind.

"I am the gatekeeper." She replied in his mother tongue "I've come to keep the path."

TRWTRWTRW

"Where have you come from? What gate are you keeping?" The demon leader asked his new guest.

"You are attempting to open a gate through the stars, why?" The red head spoke answering his question with a question. 

The leader gazed at her evenly not liking that she did not answer him with what he wanted to know, but his gut told him that he wanted her on his side. "We wish to go home. We came here to look for a treasure lost, but we have not found it in all our search so we seek our home now."

"Then you are not from this earth. You do realize that pig's blood would get you nowhere as your own body doesn't carry enough magic."

"I realized that when it didn't work that is why we had the girl she is full of power. She is our ticket home."

"You've never tried to open a portal before have you? You have drained this girl to near death," said Willow anger lacing her words as she looked over at the pale unmoving figure on the table. "And it gains you nothing, no gate will open for you with the set up you have despite the key's power."

"It was a last resort we were unable to use the return we were given we had to choose another path. Who are you to interrupt us? This is no business of yours!" The demon spoke up angrily becoming annoyed with the human woman who dared to question him and delay his band's home going.

"I am the gatekeeper. I was called here because if you try to open a portal with what you have now two thirds of this town as well as you and your band will die. You cannot get home if you are dead and your manner of death would extinguish thousands of lives."

"What is it that you propose then gatekeeper? How do we get home?"

"I can open a path for you if you are worthy of it."

"How do I prove my worth?"

The woman looked him over as if he were an object for sale and she wished to determine his value. He did not trust her stranger that she was, but her words rang true to him and she did not enter his grounds in any normal method or like the slayers and their band she would be behind the wall. "My band and I have captured the slayers and their friends is that enough to prove our might?"

"The slayers?" The woman spoke up sounding surprised "there is usually only one here."

"We found two and over powered both as well as their band. They were mighty warriors but we are greater and we have taken them down. Is that enough?"

"No." One word that held a great deal of venom. The leader did not know why the woman was so upset with him all of a sudden, but as her anger caused her power to flare he began to feel an edge of fear. "No, that is not enough you will dance with me and I will determine your worth."

"Do you have a blade?" He asked ready to offer his own if not.

The witch held up her hand and a pile of weapons near the crate table that had been stripped from the prisoners earlier and had gone unnoticed shifted. A dagger that sang with the energy and essence of the dark slayer jumped from the pile and shot smoothly to land upon the witch's outstretched palm. "I do now."

TRWTRWTRW

Faith sat behind the barrier Buffy still in her arms and watched as Willow shed her leather jacket and draped it across Dawn's legs. Buffy was no longer sobbing uncontrollably she was as transfixed by what could be seen beyond the barrier as Faith was. Tara had left Anya's lap and was kneeling near the barrier, but seemed to have regained her senses enough to not attempt to touch it. Anya moved to sit near Faith and Buffy with a smile on her face. 

"Will is going to be able to help Dawn" she said decisively. "After all she brought Buffy back and hopefully once Dawn is awake she'll be able to get us out of here. I'm hungry and I want my Xander, it will take many many orgasms to forget this night."

"If she can bring herself back to life no doubt she can help the shrimp." Faith said partly to give Buffy a positive outlook and partly to bolster her own mood. Turning back to the girls behind her she said "prepare yourselves when Red gets us out we will need to move quickly and try to get back to Buffy's before something else attacks us."

The girls who were able began to move at her command and tended to their friends who were unable, more than one of the potentials was about to lose a shirt to help bind the broken ribs and other wounds that Buffy had inflicted in her delirium. She turned back to the action beyond the barrier sure that the girls could help themselves without any further intervention from her. Faith was surprised at what she saw happening. Willow had taken off both her jacket and shirt so that her body was covered above her waist only by a bra that matched her eyes and the choker. A very long scar made up of four parallel claw marks ran across her body from her left hip to her right shoulder and on her left shoulder she had a darkened area of skin that resembled a large bite mark.

Willow and the demon leader both held their daggers in hand and at the same time used them to make a slice about six inches long on their own shoulder. That done they covered the blades they carried on both sides in the blood that flowed from their wound. Faith really wished that she could hear what was going on and that she could understand it because it looked as if something ritualistic was about to happen. 

TRWTRWTRW

Ten strikes and you're out, don't stop moving stay above the waist and below the neck. Willow dodged the leader's opening attack a slash at her ribs which would have left more than the necessary scratch if it had landed. So that's how he wants to play this she thought. She danced around him moving faster than he thought she could and sliced her blade down his back. Shallow because shallow wounds hurt more, she would torture him with thousands of paper cuts. The thought put a dark and sexy smirk on her face which gave her opponent pause, he was really more attracted to her than he should have been for someone not human. Willow tilted her head at him than licked her lips and made a come hither motion with her fingers. She would use all the weapons at her disposal against him so that she could keep him off kilter making it easier to fix the mess he caused. She had to do it fast because the stasis charm she cast when she first got here was already failing, Dawn wasn't going to last long and she was not going to let her die.

TRWTRWTRW

The two moved as if they were dancing Faith thought. Looking to her left briefly she saw Buffy standing now watching with a blank face the game of strike and counter strike. Tara still on her knees watched intently a hint of jealousy on her face as Willow used her feminine wiles to good effect. She was really working that demon guy from what Faith could see, already Willow had cut him five times and he'd only gotten her twice. Willow was not just cutting him or focusing on her movements though she was directing the blood that fell from their wounds. It was hard to see because the blood moved in drops and the fight was so much more interesting, but Faith was able to see Willow's and the leader's blood as well as Dawn's blood from the bowl paint itself against the east wall. In some cases it covered the old runes and in others it painted over the old runes making new ones. It was really fascinating to watch even though it was not nearly as entertaining as watching Willow kick tattoo guy's ass (literally, he'd be feeling that for a while). She didn't think anyone else was paying much attention to the east wall or the blood.

Willow was in full control of the battle between the two. Faith had more than enough experience to see that it didn't matter that she wasn't as strong as the muscular demon because she was faster than he was. From what she could figure out from watching, speed and stamina mattered more in the fight they had going. Whenever one of them landed a hit or failed to land a hit they both sprang apart and danced around each other before trying again never stopping. It really was more of a dance than a true fight if the blades were taken away then their movements would be almost fit for one of those reality dance shows some of the Potentials liked to watch.

But it really wasn't hard to see that Willow had the upper hand the entire time. She deliberately missed on a few of her strikes and moved in such a way that her opponent was forced to counter her in a specific direction. Faith was even sure that Willow let the other cut her at least the first time, because she moved into his dagger rather than away from it and the blood that poured from, her wound made its way to the wall. The tattooed guy was at a major disadvantage not only because he was slower, but because he had to try not to trip over his own tongue or slip in his own drool whenever he tried to strike at Willow that and he didn't seem to figure out what she was doing when she herded him into specific positions. 

TRWTRWTRW

Six to three Willow thought the runes are complete it's time to end this. In a series of moves almost too fast to keep track of Willow delivered three solid strikes against her opponent's ribs and pecs. But he surprised her when she went in for the last which she'd aimed at his upper hip. He dodged her strike leaving her slightly unbalanced as he then slashed his blade down her chest catching her bra and the outer curve of her breast which stung a lot. She spun away from him and turned back in time to deliver a final slice to his ribs just as his blade cut across her abs.

"Ten" she called to him when it looked as if he'd come in for another strike. They both stood unmoving as two of the younger males came up to them to make counts. "Ten" said the one standing near his leader as the other called five. 

"I am defeated" spoke the leader not seeming too upset at his loss. In accordance with custom he acknowledged her superiority by slowly licking a cut on her upper chest which went over her clavicle then dropping to one knee before and bared his neck while offering his blade hilt first. Willow shuddered the licking having grossed her out, but she finished the ritual by taking his blade and drawing it across his throat so that it left a thin red line of blood. "My service is yours" he spoke surprised at her not taking his life. 

Willow glanced at him briefly then offered his blade back to him and gestured for him to stand, which he did bowing to her as he rose. Willow then spoke under her breath quickly and threw Faith's dagger at the east wall so hard that it sank in a few inches before it stopped. Her throw landed the dagger in the dead center of the blood rune spiral and once it stuck all the runes around it began to glow brightly before forming a swirling vortex of light. The demons all gasped with surprise and joy and the leader turned to her confusion written all over his face.

"I lost" he said to her before looking at the portal longingly.

"It will take you and yours home, go before I change my mind."

He looked at her one last time and nodded then bowed deeply to her again turning as he gestured to his band. The demons scrambled quickly and gathered their supplies as well as the dead pig before rushing through the portal one by one led by the blue stone demon. The leader was the last, he stood by the portal until all the others had gone then he turned and looked at Willow one last time before he entered the portal himself. Once he passed Willow held out her hand and Faith's dagger flew back into it causing the portal to dissipate and all the runes on the wall to disappear.

With waiting another second Willow rushed over to Dawn dropping the dagger on the folding table as she rushed to check the pulse point in Dawn's neck then stuck two of her fingers underneath Dawn's nose. Willow grinned at feeling the very faintest of breaths from the overly pale teen she'd felt her charm fail completely moments ago and was afraid that she wouldn't make it on time, but she still had a chance. Placing one bloody hand upon Dawn's forehead and the other on her chest just over heart Willow began to chant quietly and forcefully. Her hands glowed with a pale blue light as her wounds and her nose began to pour blood like miniature waterfalls. After a few moments the glow faded and Willow fell to the floor feeling weak from the blood loss. She allowed herself a few moments to rest and check her wounds before trying to get up. It took her a few tries because of the dizziness and weakness she felt, but she was able to stand eventually using the table as a prop. By then her wounds and nose had stooped pouring blood so she was no longer in danger of exsanguination. 

It was this time that Dawn began to stir on the table she was looking much better than she had just ten minutes ago her breathing was strong and even and she was no longer so deathly pale. As Willow leaned over Dawn bringing her hand up to stroke the teen's cheek lovingly Dawn opened her eyes and screamed.


	9. Eight

The Red Witch 

Chapter 8

 

Without waiting another second Willow rushed over to Dawn dropping the dagger on the folding table as she moved to check the pulse point in Dawn's neck then stuck two of her fingers underneath Dawn's nose. Willow grinned at feeling the very faintest of breaths from the overly pale teen she'd felt her charm fail completely moments ago and was afraid that she wouldn't make it on time, but she still had a chance. Placing one bloody hand upon Dawn's forehead and the other on her chest just over heart Willow began to chant quietly and forcefully. Her hands glowed with a pale blue light as her wounds and her nose began to pour blood like miniature waterfalls. After a few moments the glow faded and Willow fell to the floor feeling weak from the blood loss. She allowed herself a few moments to rest and check her wounds before trying to get up. It took her a few tries because of the dizziness and weakness she felt, but she was able to stand eventually using the table as a prop. By then her wounds and nose had stooped pouring blood so she was no longer in danger of exsanguination. 

It was this time that Dawn began to stir on the table she was looking much better than she had just ten minutes ago her breathing was strong and even and she was no longer so deathly pale. As Willow leaned over Dawn bringing her hand up to stroke the teen's cheek lovingly Dawn opened her eyes and screamed.

TRWTRWTRW

Willow jerked back startled by the very loud and high pitched scream and Dawn still surprised by what she assumed was the First scrambled backwards and fell off the table. "You alright Dawnie?" Willow asked with concern.

"Yeah just peachy" Dawn said sarcastically standing up and rubbing the back of her head. "What are you doing here? Don't you get your rocks off enough torturing us at home do you really need to follow us around as well? Don't you have a life you evil bitch?"

An expression of hurt and confusion crossed Willow's face, but she turned away from Dawn before she could see it. Willow looked down at the blood that covered her body and let out a sigh before carefully picking up her clothes from where they landed on the floor and putting them back on. Fully dressed she looked back to Dawn ready to get the info she needed about the slayers' whereabouts before starting her search for them. Dawn was staring at her with a frozen expression of shock her eyes wide and mouth open. 

"Willow" Dawn whispered unsurely. "Willow is it really you?."

"It was the last time I checked" She answered flippantly too drained to deal with whatever was happening. She didn't expect to be welcomed back with open arms but a "hey Willow thanks for saving my ass" was not too much to ask for was it? So she was completely thrown off when Dawn flew around the table and latched on to her so hard that she swore she heard a rib break, there was enough pain for it certainly.

Willow grimaced with pain feeling her knife wounds break open and start to bleed again still she didn't try to break out of Dawn's embrace or even moderate it. She was grateful that Dawnie cared for her still and she let herself enjoy the closeness as much as she could. When Dawn finally pulled away Willow couldn't help but release a sigh of relief as her tense and pain wracked body was able to relax again.

"I'm so so sorry Willow, I thought you were the First and I was scared, I missed you so so much." The overexcited teenager spoke in a rush without breathing. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it Dawnie."

"I'm sorry"

Willow sighed and brought the teen into another hug lowering them both to them floor as she felt her strength begin to leave her and the room become spinny. She murmured "I love you"s and "it's ok"s as well as "I forgive you"s as she held the sobbing teen and tried not to pass out. She'd lost a lot more blood then she'd thought and she didn't have a enough energy to even attempt to heal herself. Funny how it always cost more to heal your own body rather than someone else and there was still the problem of the missing scooby gang she thought. Once Willow felt the teen had enough time to break down for now she pushed her away enough so that she could see her face.

"Dawnie I need you to do something for me, I need to eat or drink something to regain some energy so we can find your sister and get out of here."

"Those demons had a lot of supplies stored up I'll check upstairs and see if they left anything." Dawn said eagerly through her sniffles.

"Ok, take one of those knives though from the pile over there just in case." 

The teen grabbed a random weapon from the pile and quickly made her way to the stairs. Willow lay her head back against one of the table legs and closed her eyes wanting to get in a quick rest before Dawn was back and she had to force herself to move.

TRWTRWTRW

Behind the barrier both Tara, Faith and Buffy wore identical looks of relief over Dawn and worry for their rescuer. Anya wore a look of satisfaction because Willow proved her correct but she too was worried about the witch, who looked to have spent too much energy healing Buffy's sister and was in no state to magic them out of their box.

Tara was feeling several very complicated emotions all at once. Now that Dawn was out of danger she was feeling significantly better than she had fifteen minutes ago, but that anxiety did not completely disappear. Seeing what was presumably Willow alive and here was a major shock to her system. She had no reason to ever suspect that this would happen that her lost love would return to her. She never told the others but she had once tried to bring Willow back. That experiment failed she didn't have the power or moxie to pull something like that off. As much as she wanted to, Tara had been raised to respect magic and all the rules that were imposed on its use. In even attempting what she did she broke several of those rules and the guilt alone the wrongness of it would have kept her from finishing even if her power level wasn't at par with Will's. 

She was ashamed to admit that in the past she'd been jealous of Will's power. That she, who'd been born into the world of witch craft would have less power than someone who'd stumbled into it. Willow had succeeded in doing things Tara could only dream of trying and though their power was greater when they were together separately there was always a distinction. But Tara had the control and grounding that Will always lacked and there were times when she had to wonder if her jealousy caused her to fail in her duty to her lover, to give her the full basic teaching that Willow so obviously lacked. She had no thoughts of jealousy now, but that guilt was still with her and seeing Willow so injured and weak made her feel even more guilty than she had when she thought Willow was dead.

Then there was the love and joy. The overwhelming urge to go to Willow and use what power she had to heal her and care for her. To sleep beside her once again and eventually to reforge their connection emotionally and physically. She felt the tatters of their soul bond but she knew that it would resonate with Willow and repair itself once she held the red head in her arms again. If that was what Willow wanted. She still remembered that strange dream she'd had when she woke up so turned on and she wondered if Willow had found someone else after she'd let her go.

And also she was worried because Willow wasn't looking very strong right now. It could not have been the portal or even the healing that had drained her so much. Something else had to have happened tonight that they weren't aware of because Willow had used a lot of magic power within the last few hours. So who was this returned Willow and was she better or worse than she had been before? Would Tara need to manage her magic use again? One thing she knew for certain she'd lived without Willow once and the pain of it nearly drove her mad, so she would not do without her soul mate again. She would help her in any way necessary and remain by her side even if all that was left for her was friendship, as painful as that would be.

TRWTRWTRW

Dawn returned twenty minutes after she'd left notably dustier than before with a single bottle of water, a half smushed chocolate bar with almonds in it and an apple. Hopefully that would be enough for Willow because there was nothing else except several spiders and probably rats. She couldn't see them, but she could hear those creepy rodents and they were freaking her out. So was the itching on her wrists. She saw the improvised dressing that had been tied there but she was afraid to remove it. She remembered the cuts that had been made and the blood seeping down her hands and in the light of the ground floor of the warehouse she saw the blood that covered her all over. Part of her was afraid that she was dead and Willow was here to take her to the afterlife and another part of her was just afraid. She was sure that Willow had saved her, had come back for her but in what capacity she didn't know.

Having reached Willow, Dawn made a move to touch her shoulder and gently wake her. She was startled when Willow opened her eyes before Dawn actually touched her and she just managed to hold in a loud shriek. She passed over the chocolate first and then opened the water for her. Once the chocolate was gone and Dawn had passed over the apple and water she took a deep breath and pulled at the ties on her wrists. Her poor hands were pale from lack of proper blood flow so she couldn't ignore them anymore.

Once the wrappings were off she was pleased to see that her wrists didn't gush blood again, but under the stain of the dried blood that was there she could see an angry red line on each wrist. She would forever be marked by this experience and though she was nowhere near depressed, or at least not enough to have considered taking her own life, anyone who saw her scars would assume it. That thought made her sad, but at least she was alive really who could ask for more.

Dawn's left wrist was grabbed as Willow paused in her snack long enough to examine the flesh there. "I couldn't prevent the scarring and still have enough juice to get us out of here. Sorry Dawnie"

"It's ok Willow I'm just glad to be alive. I was sure I was dead when the tattoo guy came at me with the bowls." Dawn responded sincerely.

Willow turned back to her snack and once the apple was reduced to a core and the water drained she looked as if she'd gained a second wind. "Where is Buffy and Faith?" Willow asked turning to Dawn again.

Dawn took her time to explain everything that had happened that day ending with her sister's group being tossed behind an invisible force field and herself being hogtied. Willow then made a move to get up and Dawn watched anxiously ready to assist if need be, but Willow managed without looking as if she'd pass out. So Dawn tried not to hover too closely. They both walked toward the wall where Dawn was sure the barrier was, but they met the wall without any indication of it being an illusion. 

"Hmm, clever" Willow said feeling along the wall with a thoughtful expression.

"What is it?" Dawn asked curious.

"A demon barrier originally used to imprison demons that were going to be needed in spells. We can't see or hear them and they can see but not hear us."

"How did you know?"

"Partly because you told me some of its characteristics and partly because you can feel it. Close your eyes and touch it there isn't a cool drywall feel, but there is a slightly warm tingly feeling."

"Yeah there it is." Dawn said her eyes still closed "so how do we get them out?"

Willow stared at the fake wall a bit running her hands over different sections and then she stopped with her classic resolve face on. "Ok stand back Dawn. Are you sure Faith is back there?"

"Not really" Dawn said while moving back, "but she did call us here and those guys could have taken them like they did us."

"I hope so" Willow said holding her hand palm up. "I can't afford to lose any more blood."

The bloody dagger that was laying on the folding table landed on Willow's open palm and she chanted something in Latin that caused it to flash once brightly then glow a soft blue. "A mini light saber this is. Cuts through energy and solids it does." Willow said then turned to Dawn with a silly grin on her lips and Dawn could only laugh at her goofiness. 

When she was facing the false wall again Willow knelt down and forced the knife through the barrier slowly she brought it back up until she was standing once again. Then she started calling for Faith.

"I thought you said they couldn't hear us?" Dawn asked confused.

"They can't, but this is Faith's knife it calls to her and I need her to touch it so that she can help me get them out." Willow replied without turning from the barrier, speaking slowly and evenly as if trying to force Faith to hear her or read her lips. "Ah, there she is."

Dawn watched carefully as Willow went completely silent and still for the next few minutes. Then she begin to move again sliding the blade up as high as she could reach before walking slowly sideways. 

"Dawn, I need you to put your hand into the door I'm cutting and grab Faith's hand, whatever you do don't let her go."

Dawn nodded and put her hand to the center of what was Willow's doorway. She expected to meet a solid feeling wall but to her surprise it felt more like melting candle wax that wasn't quite liquid yet. So she forced her hand through until she could feel air on the other side and something grabbed her hand. "That's Faith right?" she asked Willow nervously.

"Yeah grab her tight Dawn don't let go until I say. By the way I put a ward on your house no demon or anyone intending you harm will be able to enter the yard without yours or Buffy's permission. That means that if Spike is still around you'll have to invite him in again."

"You're coming with us right?" Dawn asked once again anxious. Willow had just finished making the cut that went down to the floor and she brought the knife up at an angle towards Dawn and Faith's clasped hands before she spoke.

"I'll be there soon, but I've got to take care of something first" She said now fully standing and unmoving next to Dawn.

"How do I know that you're coming back that you aren't leaving me again?" Tears started building up behind the teen's eyes her expression heartbreaking as she looked at the red haired witch.

Willow reached up with her free hand and took her choker off and placed it in Dawn's hand. "That was given to me by a very good friend of mine and it is very special to me. I'm going to want that back so if nothing else it will remind you that I am coming back to you."

Dawn looked down at the black ribbon necklace and nodded shoving it deep into her pocket. "I'll keep is safe for you."

"Good, now on three we pull back together don't let go of Faith's hand until you see Buffy get out. She should be the last one in line. No one lets go you understand? If they do everyone else is stuck until I have the energy to do this again which may take awhile. Pull hard on three."

Dawn pulled at the given signal and Faith's arm started coming through. It was like the barrier was resisting her though so it took more effort than it really should have. Once Faith's shoulder was out Dawn switched to a two handed grip and pulled harder. She glanced back over her shoulder as Willow walked away dropping Faith's knife back on the table and moving towards the front door. She's coming back Dawn thought I have her choker she's coming back. 

"Hey Kid pull" Faith said to her snapping her back to her present duty. Faith was laughably stuck in the barrier half of her out and half of her still in. So Dawn turned to her and started pulling again beyond ready to go home, bathe, eat and sleep in that order. And any potential or slayer who got in between her and the bathroom would need medical help.


	10. Nine

The Red Witch 

Chapter 9

 

It had taken nearly three hours for everyone (or nearly everyone) to get home from the warehouse. It took Dawn and Faith thirty minutes to pull everyone out of the barrier. The resistance of the force field worked against them as well as the fact that several girls were badly injured and in no condition to pull themselves or others out so they had to be creative in figuring out a way to get them out. Finally they managed and Buffy with a new layer of guilt resting on her already troubled heart had to then get them to the hospital. Some of the girls were not bad enough off to require hospitalization and Tara could take care of them at home once she'd had enough rest. But the others especially those with broken ribs would require more immediate care and couldn't afford to wait for the blonde witch to get to them. All in all five of the girls had to stay at least overnight and three others were given care in the emergency room before being released and this was Buffy's fault. 

Buffy wanted to insist that Dawn get checked over, but any doctor who saw her wounds would put her in suicide watch for the next 72 hours. They couldn't afford that so Tara kept Dawn back out of the way of any health care professionals and promised to look her over that night before bed. Buffy took out the time while they were there to touch bases with the four potentials on Shannon duty and update them as well as ensure that they knew to look out for the other potentials in the hospital, who were luckily placed close to each other making this easier. She promised to have them relieved by more potentials once Tara had a chance to go over them all the next morning. She heard the nurses near Shannon's room speak of a guy who'd had an eye put out but she just shuddered and allowed herself to be glad that her girls still had all their parts. 

Once they finally reached home the entire group was more than tired and far past exhausted. The whole experience had used up quite a bit of adrenaline and energy and it was highly unlikely that anyone would do anything but fall into bed blood, dust, grime, hunger and all. For Buffy however the notion of bed was forcefully pulled from her head when she saw Spike pacing up and down the sidewalk in front of her house looking very agitated. It was then that Dawn finally remembered to tell the slayer about the ward Willow claimed to have put on the house. Buffy took Spike's pacing the sidewalk as evidence that Will's ward worked.

When Spike finally noticed the group he began rushing toward them. Buffy spared a though for Xander's location while she positioned herself to be directly in Spike's path. She was confused and upset when he blew right past her to Anya who was at the end of the group playing rear guard with Faith.

"You need to come quick Pet, your boy is in trouble." He said to her

"Xander, Xander... what kind of trouble Spike?!" Anya replied becoming visibly anxious and more and more agitated with each word.

"He's at the hospital and he needs you right now, we have to go."

Without another word both Anya and Spike took off running back the way the women had come from. Buffy was left with the others neither Spike nor Anya had paid her the least bit of attention and so she was left behind. However she wasn't going to stay home now not if Xander was in trouble though she did have a responsibility towards the girls so she made a few quick decisions.

"Faith, Tara take the girls inside and keep them there Willow's ward should be enough to keep you guys safe until I come back. No one leaves the house period." She then turned to run after Anya and Spike, but was stopped by simultaneous declarations from both Tara and Dawn.

"I'm coming too!"

"He is our friend as well Buffy" Tara added.

"Tara I need you here with the girls I'll update you as soon as I know what's going on. Dawn you stay here I mean it I can't worry about anyone else tonight, I need you to stay here." The last part was said while Buffy stared directly into Dawn's eyes her fear for her sister and emotional vulnerability, which lingered from her break down, showed clearly in her eyes and face. Dawn could do nothing but swallow and nod while Buffy turned her eyes to Faith.

"I've got this B, go take care of your boy."

Buffy gave Faith a faint smile and a look of gratitude that she rarely bothered with when it came to the dark slayer then she turned and ran as if hell itself were chasing her.

XXX

As fast as she ran Buffy never caught sight of either blonde until she found Spike waiting for her in the surgical floor's waiting room but Anya was missing. Spike quickly informed her that according to the doctor Xander pulled through surgery well and was being moved to a room on the third floor after he left recovery. Anya was being allowed as his wife to see him for ten minutes upstairs before they moved him. He then told her that they were to meet Anya upstairs in the third floor's lounge where he would explain exactly what happened.

Buffy tried pressing Spike for more answers but the vampire seemed more than a bit shaken and a little unhinged, so she got nothing more from him than an insistence that they go upstairs to wait for Anya. When Anya finally showed twenty minutes later under the escort of a no nonsense looking nurse Buffy was past ready for some answers but she made it a point of trying to comfort Anya first.

"Is he ok Anya?" she asked while holding the ex demon and guiding her to a chair. The nurse walked off after telling them that she'd return to let them know which room Xander was in.

"He lost his eye" Anya sobbed. "He did well in surgery but they couldn't save his eye. My husband is a pirate now!"

"Oh my." Buffy was in shock far too much had happened in one night. From the disaster that was her plan for stopping the demons, to Dawn's near death, to this. And there was still the mystery that was Willow if that was even Willow in the warehouse. Buffy was suddenly struck by the thought that maybe Willow could help Xander, she was his oldest friend so it wouldn't be hard to convince her. If the slayer could find her. But Buffy decided it was best not to speak about that out loud just in case, she would have to find the red head first.

"Spike what happened?" Buffy demanded.

Spike paced in front of the two women explaining as best he could what happened once he and Xander left Buffy's. About the search and following the bringer Caleb and the ambush. He ended by telling them that he and Xander had been lucky to even get out of there had Caleb brought more bringers with him Spike would have dust and Xander a corpse.

Neither Buffy nor Anya could fault Spike for what happened, much to his relief, but this was going to bring down morale even further. Already Buffy was beginning to feel even more guilt along with the sympathetic pain for her friend.

Buffy spent the next thirty minutes that it took the nurse to return with a room number filling in Spike about their night. When they finally did get to Xander he was asleep and according to the doctor very likely to sleep until the next morning at least and he'd be heavily medicated when he did wake. Buffy did call Tara to keep her promise about giving an update and to ask if Tara knew of anything that could help Xander. Unfortunately she didn't though she promised to look, but she wasn't very optimistic about it there was a big chance there would be nothing to find. Times like this made Buffy wish that Giles was available he'd know without a doubt if anything could be done, but he wasn't going to be back for at least another day.

Buffy and Spike returned to her home after about an hour and a half of sitting with Anya. As his wife Anya was allowed to stay in his room but Buffy and Spike were already past visiting hours when they were kicked out. Besides the slayer was due for some rest anyway. Both slayer and vamp were so tired and drained that they forgot about the ward so Spike literally walked into it before Buffy thought to invite him in. The house was quiet when they got in and Spike went to crash in the basement with Buffy's permission, she felt better having another experienced fighter near especially with all the attacks that they've gone through and that have occurred at her home since the First became active.


	11. Ten

The Red Witch

Chapter 10

When Buffy and Spike finally returned from the hospital neither of them noticed Faith though she sat in a chair near the front door and both walked right past her. Spike went straight to the basement, but Buffy went upstairs to her bed or so Faith thought. The dark Slayer was in a good deal of pain and truthfully it was this that kept her from sleeping though she told herself that she was keeping an eye on things for Buffy and ensuring that everyone in the house stayed safe. She was hoping that she didn't have internal injuries and that her Slayer healing would kick in and save her ass if she did.

She should have gone to get checked while they were in the hospital and she knew she was wrong not to. But she couldn't bring herself to do that when she knew that Buffy would just feel even more guilty and she absolutely hated hospitals anyway probably because she'd spent so much time in them, so she sat here alone in the dark in pain while everyone else slept. Once the adrenaline had worn off she felt all of her injuries and her body strongly protested its misuse. She highly doubted that she could get up from the chair even if she wanted to. What she really wanted at that moment was the bottle of Jack she had in her duffel but it probably wasn't the best idea to drink now so she didn't, still she was very tempted. As Faith maneuvered herself into a slightly less painful position Buffy came back into the room and finally spotted her counterpart because of the muffled moan Faith couldn't help but make as she moved.

"Faith are you ok?"

"Fine B, five by five. How's Xander?"

Buffy sighed and sat on the couch across from Faith, which had been doubling as Faith's bed for the past few months. "He's not good. He'll live, but he will never be the same again unless we can find some magical way of helping him."

"I don't think magic can do that. T had me helping her research for awhile after she got your call but we didn't find anything. Pretty much everything we found said that we can't fix him."

"Damn it. I was hoping... Anya was so crushed and Xander is the sweetest guy. He doesn't deserve this." Buffy stood abruptly and began pacing angrily. "I'd ask Giles but he won't be here for who knows how long and what if there is a limit on how long we have to help Xander."

Buffy suddenly stopped pacing and fell backwards onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. "I want to find Willow I'm hoping she can help him. But I have no idea where she could be and I am so tired. This day sucked. Why are you still up anyway?"

"I couldn't sleep like you said this day sucked."

"Are you sure you're ok? Maybe you should have got yourself checked out too your nose is gonna heal all crooked."

"Five by five. I'll have T look at my nose when she wakes up. You can re-break it for me if it's healed already."

Buffy smiled grimly at that, remembering that Faith's condition was her fault in the first place. "You should go to sleep soon get some rest."

"Naw, I really don't think I can I'm just gonna chill here and think for a while."

An idea came to Buffy then one that she hoped Faith would go along with if only for Xander's sake though she wanted it for her own sake as well. "Since you aren't going to sleep for a while anyway would you mind looking for Willow. Just for a few hours at least. I'm going to go looking for her myself when I wake up if you haven't found her already, but the sooner we get her back the sooner she can help Xander. Please."

This request from her counterpart put Faith in a real bind. On the one hand she was fairly certain that she should not be moving at all given her injuries. On the other hand refusing Buffy meant having to reveal her injuries to the other Slayer as she really had no reason otherwise to say no. If Buffy knew how bad off Faith was she'd insist on the hospital and Faith was too stubborn to want to go, she had vowed to herself to never get caught there again. And Faith was sure she'd be stuck there for days if she did go, while they were there earlier she never even went inside. Besides this was a genuine request from the other Slayer and not an order, she had even said please which had become rare from Buffy.

"Sure B. Walking around will probably help me think anyway I'll leave in a few minutes."

"Thanks I really appreciate this. I'll owe you one."

"Don't worry about it I like Xander too. He's a cool cat and if Willow might be able to help then I'll find her for him."

Buffy stood and gave Faith a look of gratitude then left heading back upstairs to her room. Faith sat on the chair gathering her strength and then by sheer force of stubborn will picked herself up out of the chair to her feet without a sound. Swaying slightly she carefully maneuvered herself to the front door. She didn't bother stopping for a weapon in her condition she probably wouldn't be able to carry or use any, so she just had to hope trouble stayed away for one night. Faith told herself that she would check one place and then come back so that she could honestly tell Buffy that she did look. 

The two likeliest places that she thought she'd find the witch in were the motels near were Faith used to stay when she first came to Sunnydale and the witch's parents house. The red head had been as drained as Faith was feeling now so Faith didn't think that she'd left town or went looking for more trouble just yet. The closest place to Buffy's was Will's parent's place so she'd head there and then come back, hopefully still in one piece.

XXX

In the end it took Faith nearly two hours to make the 15 minute walk to Willow's old home. One reason was that she'd only been there once while spying on the Scoobies for the mayor and other than that she only knew in general where it was. Another reason was the further she walked the weaker she got until by the time she had reached the house she was wheezing badly and every so often coughing like an old smoker whose pack a day habit finally caught up with them and she could barely move. Even her sheer stubborn will could do no more for her and she collapsed on the front porch blood from her coughing fits splattered over her mouth, hands and shirt. Grabbing a broken piece of a chair that once sat on the porch she managed to ring the doorbell once before her strength completely failed her. Luckily for her someone was actually home this time and actually came to the door despite the late (or early however you look at it) hour and in this town that was a miracle (or the sign of an idiot however you look at it). 

When Faith next woke she was lying naked in a strange bed in a strange room cuddled next to an equally naked red head who was not so strange (or at least not a stranger). Her very first thought was; how much did I drink last night to not remember this? Her second was why am I so wet? And the third was Tara is so going to kick my ass, Slayer or not. After that last thought her first action was to move away from her bedmate. In moving she found that she was feeling pretty damn good with not even a twinge of pain just a little soreness and dry mouth though her throat did ache just a little. The room was dark lit only by a single oil lamp on the desk and all the windows as well as the glass doors leading outside seemed to be closed as well as covered by the curtains.

She could now remember the events of last night up to her passing out, but none of it explained why she was in the condition she was in. She got off the bed and stumbled into the nearest wall as her body healed or not was not quite ready to be up and about. Then she stubbornly made her way to the dresser on the opposite wall intent on finding something to wear. Faith noticed now that the room was as hot as a sauna though the air was dry and the bed she'd just left was covered in a pile of blankets. At least that explained why she was wet her body was covered in sweat, so she resolved to take a nice cool shower right after she found what she needed. 

Reaching the dresser she found nothing but fuzzy sweaters and cutesy shirts, clothes she would not be caught dead in. Just as she decided to walk around nude until she got back to Buffy's laughter coming from behind her had her turning around a little too fast making her dizzy.

"Check the last drawer there should be a few pairs of sweatpants there and a couple of my old high school t-shirts." Faith stared dumbly as the too amused red head rose out of the bed and stretched not giving a thought to her current state of undress. "You won't get a shower right now though there is still no water or electricity in the house yet. I'll have to take care of that later."

Faith was still playing at being a perfect statue as Willow lifted a brow at her and then proceeded to get the clothes herself. Handing Faith a pair of sweatpants and a shirt Willow walked out the room another set of clothes in her hand. "I'll get us something to snack on before we head to Buffy's" the red head called out from beyond the door.

Faith stood still for another few moments staring at the doorway with a look of appraisal and arousal wondering how to avoid getting killed by Tara if she did what she wanted to do in that moment. She shook her head and put the idea aside for a while dressing quickly and blowing out the lamp before following the sounds of cabinets opening and closing to the kitchen. She was suddenly super hungry as well as turned on. 

When she got there Willow was fully dressed and holding two cans of Chef Boyardee. Bottled water and hot cans of Coke on the countertop. "Spaghetti or ravioli?"

Faith chose a random can and grabbed one of the plastic forks Willow held out to her neither bothering with the dusty bowls in the open cabinet behind Willow. Faith stared at Willow while eating, a little too obvious with her thoughts if Willow's smirk was any indication.

"Got a problem Slayer?" The witch asked in a flirty tone. But that prompted Faith to ask the question that had been on her mind since she'd awoken not fifteen minutes before. 

"Why was I naked? If you wanted to ravish me I'm good with that I'd just rather be conscious for it."

"Oh Baby. Don't you remember our night of passion? You said I rocked your world and I was definitely pleased but you've still got a lot to learn. Don't worry we can try again later." 

Faith stopped eating thrown off her game a bit wondering just for a moment how the hell she could forget something like that, when Willow starting laughing at her again. The nerve of her, a lot to learn indeed she wouldn't dare say that once Faith had her in bed.

"You came here on death's door and it was all I could do to keep you alive. I healed you as much as I could but doing that strained me because I had already used so much energy and a consequence of that was a temporary but very bad case of hypothermia. I borrowed your body heat and even after the worst had passed because I was still having trouble maintaining my body temperature so we both stayed naked. You look fine now though Slayer healing is amazing how do you feel?"

"Compared to yesterday pretty damn good. Thanks Red I owe you one. How are you feeling?" 

"I'm good now. Why did you come here anyway when you should have been in a hospital somewhere? If I hadn't been here we'd be down a Slayer."

Faith suddenly remembered her mission and Xander, and looking through the kitchen window she noticed that it was night time. So she'd been here all day and no one knew and who knows what has been happening outside. 

"What time is it?" She asked suddenly very disturbed.

"About 8 o'clock. What's wrong?"

"I've been here all day. I was supposed to get you so you could help Xander, but I didn't know how bad off I was."

"You've been here two days. We have both been really sick, but you slept the whole time I didn't. What am I supposed to help Xander with?"

"Two days! Damn." Faith was shocked by that and scared now that she realized fully just how bad off she'd been. They had to get back to the others right away no telling what had happened while she was asleep. But first she had to fill in Willow about what had went down after they escaped the demon prison.


	12. Eleven

The Red Witch

Chapter 11

Willow and Faith were just inside the entrance of Buffy's house when they heard Willow's voice which startled them both. Willow even put a hand to her throat to be sure she wasn't the one speaking because the voice was such a ringer for her own. Looking at Faith she noticed an understanding pass over the Slayer's face so she made a questioning gesture with her hands not willing to speak until she knew what was going on.

"The First" Faith mouthed at her. But this was no help at all because she had no idea who or what the First was. The conversation she'd had with Faith before walking over here covered only Caleb and his involvement with Xander's injury. Willow wouldn't wait longer to hear the whole story because Xander was her very oldest friend. So even though she specifically left the warehouse when she did to postpone the Scooby reunion until she felt healthy enough to deal with whatever happened she insisted on leaving as soon as Xander and hurt passed Faith's lips. Appropriately enough Xander's voice was the next that they heard as they crept towards the voices remaining out of sight.

"You just had to ruin my homecoming. Not enough that your nutso priest did this to me you have to ruin my evening as well."

"Oh Xander, I always liked you. I didn't want you hurt but you insisted on sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. So now you complain that you got bit." A dramatic sigh "That can happen when poke a sleeping doggy. You know, why are you here with Buffy? Why are any of you here? This battle is hers she's the Slayer and you're all just her pawns, cannon fodder. You could leave now and stay out of this whole mess after all what has Buffy done for any of you? She herself injured half the girls she's supposed to be protecting and Xander was hurt very badly on her behalf. Not to mention she's the reason I'm dead and the reason that Faith is now as good as dead. Really Buffy you would send a girl with internal injuries out to do your bidding? Slayers heal fast but not always fast enough"

Willow quickly stepped into sight before the First could continue her speech as she saw some were being swayed by it. Maybe they wouldn't outright leave, but if the First succeeded in just spreading doubt about Buffy and planted strife among the others it could ruin their chances at accomplishing their goals.

"Do I really talk like that? I know I tend to ramble sometimes but come on."

"Actually Red you do kinda talk like that." Faith spoke up, poking at Willow's shoulder with her finger.

"I do not I am not nearly so dramatic."

"Are too."

"Am not." Willow then went into full on pout mode completing her childish argument with the dark Slayer with a childish expression that got Faith to quickly stand down from their entertaining quarrel. Women who can make pouts sexy and cute at the same time are damned dangerous. In any case Faith and Willow now had the undivided attention of everyone in the room even the First.

"Will" Xander called out softly, hesitantly. Willow would find out later that he hadn't been told of her return at Anya's request. But for now she was a little thrown by his awestruck and suddenly teary gaze.

"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." Willow said very dramatically earning yet another poke from Faith to which she responded by sticking out her tongue at the Slayer. "And Faithy here isn't quite dead either." A poke at Faith's shoulder this time, which caused the Slayer to grin. Between the two of them they had managed to change the atmosphere in the room enough to hopefully put a crater in the efforts the First was making to divide and conquer. Willow made a mental note to thank Faith later for helping her achieve this, the younger Slayer caught on quickly and was way more intelligent than she'd given her credit for in the past.

"But you are behind the times buddy." Willow left Faith's side to walk towards the First and pace around it studying it while it studied her. Apparently the First hadn't been aware that she was alive because it looked very surprised and Willow was more than a little freaked to see herself without the aid of a mirror though she managed to hide that.

The First mirrored Willow's appearance just before her death but Willow no longer identified with the girl she used to be. For Willow three and a half years passed in the months her friends lived believing she had died. None of them knew it yet but this Willow was very different from their Willow and it showed a little physically. For one she'd gone back to wearing her hair long it fell beneath her shoulders now not to mention all the new scars she now carried. Plus Willow was now a little more built than she had been before, circumstances had forced her to tone and strengthen her body. Something everyone who saw her shirtless had noticed and something Faith was well aware of as she'd seen her completely naked.

Willow stopped her appraisal to look herself in the eye. "By any chance are you an ancient evil bent on wiping out anything remotely good from the face of the Earth?"

The First seemed confused and put out by both Willow's question and appearance. For sure none of the people who currently lived in that house had ever seen it anything but sharp witted and very adaptive. However it was beginning to recover from its surprise. Seeing this Willow had to think quickly she couldn't afford to let it get the upper hand again. So instead of waiting for an answer she quickly murmured a spell under her breath that would remove any glamour. When her spell showed no effect tried another that ended in a loud snap right in front of the First's face. To Willow's surprise and relief the First was forced to change form but it now resembled Buffy, which wasn't much better.

"It takes the forms of people who died and it's non-corporeal." Dawn piped up helpfully from her spot near Buffy. A quick glance showed that she was wearing Willow's choker which made Willow smile briefly. 

Turning back to the First who now mimicked Willow's form exactly and was opening its mouth to speak, Willow quickly repeated her spell with an extra added flourish. The First now resembled a scrawny nerdish looking boy that Buffy and Xander vaguely recognized as having gone to high school with them.

"Xander you remember Mickey Kors?"

Xander seemed to still be stuck on the wonder of Willow's return, but managed a response only partially strangled by the lump of emotion in his throat. "Yeah nerdy kid year behind us never made it to puberty."

"Poor Mickey will never reach puberty now he was bitten and turned the summer before senior year when Buffy was gone and I had to stake him. He was a really sad vamp no fangs at all, actually made me feel bad to dust him."

"You will be destroyed you disrespectful hussy!" The First exclaimed. But any effect the words could have had was lost in the cartoonish squeaky voice that cracked as it came out its mouth.

"Yeah, in this house you may take no other form." Willow intoned as the First tried obviously to change forms again and failed. Glaring at Willow (again the effect lost in the form the First was trapped in) it disappeared very obviously pissed off at the witch. "That worked only because I already warded this house outside of here it can be anyone. " Willow spoke out to the room in general before moving to Xander and touching his face gently below his eye patch.

"Oh Xander." She breathed sadly before pulling him into a hug he returned without hesitation. No one else moved or said a word not even Tara who was eager to reunite with her ex girlfriend. After a few moments they pulled apart and Willow was pulled into a hug by Anya before anyone else could get to her.

"You can help him right? I mean you brought Dawn back from the dead surely you can get Xander back his eye." Anya for once might have been trying to be discrete but her lack of practice showed because everyone near enough heard her.

"I can help his body finish healing the damage so he's not in pain anymore, but I can't regrow body parts. I can only help the body heal as it would naturally only faster. Dawn wasn't dead when I got to her or she'd be dead now."

Anya looked very disappointed and ready to argue with Willow about what the witch could or couldn't do when Xander placed his hand on his wife's shoulder silencing her. "I would be grateful for whatever you can do Will."

"If I heal you up now the doctors will have questions at your check up."

"This is Sunnydale they won't ask too many" They both smiled at the long standing joke and Willow agreed to help Xander. Before they could even think about getting to it though Giles and Buffy brought Willow's attention to themselves. Giles having returned earlier that day with not one but three new girls was very surprised and very happy when Buffy told him about Willow. Both girls were like daughters to him and that showed clearly in the three way hug they all shared. He even had a tear trailing down one cheek when they parted though he was quick to cover it up by swiping at his cheek and cleaning his glasses unnecessarily.

After they had exchanged greetings it was finally Tara's turn for a reunion as Dawn had one of sorts two days before in the warehouse. Willow had been afraid of this reunion more than the others, afraid of what she would or wouldn't feel, afraid of Tara's reactions. Their hug lasted far longer than any of the others though Willow did turn her face to avoid the kiss that Tara wanted to give her so it landed on her cheek instead. When their eyes met again Willow tried to convey the things she couldn't say aloud with their unspoken language, but Tara couldn't read her like she used to. They would have to have a very long conversation at some point in the future Willow thought.

Buffy then introduced Willow in general to the potentials who knew of her only through stories and the First. The crowd included Shannon who was released just before Xander was and the other girls who'd been hospitalized and were now under Tara's care as well as the three new girls who were still unsure of their place here. The Scooby gang then left the girls to themselves as they moved to the kitchen where Willow touched glowing hands to Xander's face before finding a seat for herself.

To everyone's surprise Buffy's first question was to Faith rather than Willow as expected. "Faith why didn't you tell me that you were hurt? When Tara told me she thought you were hurt inside I was afraid I'd sent you to your death with all the Turok Han and demons around. I was sure of it when you never came back!"

"Sorry B, I just didn't want you sending me to the hospital. Besides Red found me and she took wicked good care of me." This said with a teasing smirk at Willow. "I could use a bath though we must have sweat clear through the mattress."

"I wouldn't be surprised if we did especially you." The witch responded with a flirty grin. Tara was not pleased by the implications and Buffy was quick to prod Faith into a full explanation before things became unpleasant. 

"That's funny I went by your parent's place Will before I looked anywhere else that morning and I saw no sign of people." Buffy said after hearing Faith's account of the last two days( which was basically I went to Will's fell unconscious woke up two days later and came back, the end) to which Willow added detail.

"That's because that house has been empty a long time probably since I started college. I didn't have time to fix it up any or even get the utilities on."

"No need for that Will this is your home and you are welcome here."

"Thanks for that Buffy but it's probably best if I got the house spruced up some you guys are already over capacity and it probably isn't the best idea to have everyone in one place. You know eggs and baskets and all that."

"She has a point." Dawn said quickly "besides there are way too many people here to fit comfortably we are out of floor space and with the new girls that's twenty girls sharing two bathrooms not including anyone in the kitchen. And don't get me started on privacy issues. Will can move back after we kick the First's a... um, butt."

"She's right Buffy." Anya added "Xander and I are going to move in with Will too, because there's safety in numbers and I'd rather not move into an overcrowded house. Faith can go with Willow so that there is a full Slayer in each place and the potentials can still train here."

"I'm cool with that B. If we take some of the girls over with use that will be less stress on you and the bathrooms." This from Faith who was inwardly pleased to be assigned to Willow.

"Fine then but you guys stay here until Will has everything set up and Tara I'm sorry but I'd rather you stay here so we have a dedicated magic user at each house."

That did not sit well with Tara at all, but she couldn't really argue against it as Buffy had a point about the magic. It was only supposed to be until the current crisis was dealt with anyway and it wouldn't keep her from spending time with the other witch. Though Faith was more than likely going to end up on her bad side before the end.

Practical matters dealt with Buffy finally asked the question that was weighing on everyone's mind. Where had Willow been these past six and a half months?


	13. Twelve

The Red Witch

Chapter 12

Willow however wasn't ready to answer that yet she wanted instead to hear about the current crisis that they found themselves in. So everyone agreed to fill her in so long as tomorrow she gave an accounting of her whereabouts. With that agreement made the rest of the night was spent with the Scoobies talking and eating then breaking up to get showers and some shut eye, though that presented a problem in itself because sleeping spaces were not readily available in that house.

The real surprise came at Willow's response to Tara offering the red head her place back in their bed. She refused though it seemed to pain her to do it and Tara was hurt by the rejection. Dawn smoothed things over by offering Willow her bed while she slept with Buffy. But Faith's couch had been taken over by an injured Potential and Xander, Anya and Giles still had nowhere to go. In the end a lot of rearrangement was necessary and Willow ended up sharing Buffy's bed while Tara squeezed in with Dawn so Xander and Anya could have her bed. Giles kicked Spike out of his cot in the basement and Faith had to pull up some floor space.

The next morning had everyone in a bad mood. Hot water and bathroom time were in short supply as was food. It was hard for Buffy to maintain order in the light of things with so many extra people floating around. So there was really no time for Willow to make good on her promise that day in fact nearly her whole day was spent setting up her parents house for habitation. She did not want to spend another day and night with at Buffy's with all the people so she had to brush off her hacking skills to get her utility orders bumped up to that day (which took much longer than it really should have but then again she hadn't been near a computer in a long time). Luckily she'd never actually been declared dead as a body was never found so she still had access to her accounts as well as her parent's which gave her the means to get things done. Ten of the most mobile potentials went with Faith and Anya to Willow's in order to get things cleaned and stocked as none of them wanted to stay at Revello Drive again either. 

Willow had already warded the property so when night fell again the house was mostly habitable and everyone had room to spread out and breathe which was very much appreciated. Xander and Anya had taken her parent's room while Faith had the other bedroom so there was the pull out couch in her parents office and a couple of sofas for the ten girls. Anya was proud of herself for getting an awesome deal on the purchase of twenty five thermal sleeping bags in the town's sports store. Her haggling skills were second to none or so she told everyone. Luckily the bags were more comfortable than both the pull out and the sofas combined so the girls would be sleeping well in both houses thanks to Willow's parents.

The next day things were more organized as there were three bathrooms in the Rosenberg household and since Anya and Faith went shopping there was enough food to feed everyone so long as the girls kept down the snacking. Faith took the girls for training at Buffy's while Anya, Xander and Willow finished working on the house including bringing some necessary items over from the Harris' apartment so too many things would not need to be brought. Willow's resources weren't unlimited by any means just because they'd gained interest from being untouched so long.

That evening was a scheduled Scooby meeting where the others hoped to get Willow to spill her story. Willow wasn't as eager to tell as they were to hear as many parts of her story were personal to her. Including a few things that she thought Tara had the right to hear about first as they had the potential to hurt her and Willow wanted to beak it to her gently, which meant away from the others. So a full hour and a half before the meeting Willow took Tara to her house which by now was empty and they sat in the living room so they could talk.

"I brought you here because there are things you need to know before I tell everyone my story." Willow began slowly.

"Things like what? What happened to you Willow?" Tara touched Willow's face softly craving an intimacy that they once shared and she was relieved when Willow didn't pull away from her touch as she feared the red head would. In fact Willow actually leaned into her touch for a while and unable to help herself Tara turned the gentle touch into a gentle kiss which Willow allowed for a moment before pulling away. Tara found that she was pleased by the interaction but she wanted more much more and she was afraid that Willow didn't.

"When the demons attacked me in that street I was rescued by someone, a woman."

"Sidonie?" Tara asked began to feel apprehensive about where this was going.

"Yes. How'd you know" Willow's confusion was readily evident.

Tara told Willow about the dream she had of Willow making love with someone named Sidonie about how it ended with Tara waking herself up calling this woman's name. However she left out what came after and the whole mess with the First in her bed as a naked Willow.

"I didn't realize she did that I doubt she did either, she is a demon but she isn't needlessly cruel. She must have felt really bad about my leaving. I've learned that strong emotion can cause unintended effects in magic users like accidental spells."

The sound of a door closing came to them both, Willow had assumed no one else was there, but the door she heard was the door leading outside from the kitchen. She didn't hear any other sounds like footsteps and a quick look around the house showed it was empty now so they returned to the living room.

"So this Sidonie rescued you and you started sleeping with her? Left us alone thinking you were dead for six months while you fooled around with another girl?"

"That's not fair Tara. You broke up with me long before that though I completely understand why you did that and I don't blame you for it. I might have done the same in your place But it wasn't cheating she was there for me when you weren't. And I really couldn't return much sooner than I did it wasn't like I was in L.A or something."

"I'm sorry you're right that wasn't very fair of me. Tell me what happened Willow." Tears built up in Tara's eyes which prompted them to develop in the red head's as well.

"I'm not trying to hurt you Tara. I really don't want to hurt you."

Tara gave Willow a shaky smile and a nod acknowledging her statement. Then she made a gesture that clearly told Willow to finish her story. Willow sighed then did just that.

"By the time Sid took out the demons who'd attacked me I was dead. She took me through to her dimension a place that was kinda like Earth but very different. Here there were no humans only different types of demons. She and our mentor Ysandre revived me using Sid's healing power and took care of me. They taught me different things like proper uses of magic and fighting like with real weapons and without. In your time I was gone six months, where I was over three years passed and Sid and I were close for a long time. he kept me sane and helped me face myself once I realized how much I'd misused my magic. How much I'd hurt you by being so selfish."

Here Willow stopped her head down and eyes closed. Tara in an act of compassion took Willow into her arms and just held her close.

"I'm sorry Tara I'm so sorry for what I've done to you."

"I forgave you Willow long ago. I'm just glad you got some help even if I couldn't give it to you."

Tara sighed and paused considering but asked the question she knew she wouldn't be able to contain. "So then is this it for us, are you going back to Sidonie when this is all over?"

"I can't." Willow's voice muffled against Tara's shoulder. "It was pretty much a one time deal once I left I couldn't go back. And she can't come here without sacrificing too much. So we can't see each other again. That dream you had was our saying goodbye."

Tara shuddered in relief though she managed to keep from saying anything that could potentially come out as callous, jealous or insensitive. "I'm here for you Willow however you want me I can be your friend if that is what you need right now."

Willow raised her head tears drying on her cheeks and moved back to put a little space between herself and Tara. "I think that would be best." Willow said carefully. "I'm not really ready for another relationship right now and I wouldn't want you to be rebound girl."

"I'm not going anywhere Willow we have time." Then before Willow could speak up again she asked another question that showed her interest clearly even if she hadn't meant it to. "What's going on with you and Faith?"

"I saved her life and in doing so put myself in danger, keeping her close saved me. We kinda bonded over that though she spent most of that time unconscious. Besides Faith and I are a lot alike when it comes down to it. I can see her more clearly now than I was able to when we were teenagers. She flirts for fun and I've gotten into the habit of flirting when flirted with. I think she and I could be friends now." 

Tara accepted Willow's statement though she did note that Willow never stated that Faith would never be anything other than a friend.

"So Tara how about you, meet anyone?" Willow asked perhaps a little insensitively although she just wanted to turn the conversation from herself.

"I was grieving and I was interested in anyone else. Though I did meet someone I would have liked to be friends with. Being around only the Scooby gang just reminded me over and over you weren't there. She was in all of my classes at college, but she transferred out not too long after we met." *

"Ah, that's too bad. I'm sorry you guys were left thinking I was dead dead."

"There wasn't any way you could have gotten word to us?"

"No, Sid really shouldn't have been able to send you that dream and I'm not quite sure how she did that. There was absolutely no signal in that dimension and the postal service was atrocious."

Tara grinned at Willow's small joke then mentioned that they should be leaving to meet the others. The air was clear between them now and both were on the same page about where they were in terms of their relationship or current lack of one and that was enough for now. Though a not so small part of Tara was longing for more than Willow was able to offer right then.

By the time they'd made it back to Buffy's everyone else was already there waiting for them. Dawn stopped them just before they could go into the kitchen. She unclasped the choker from around her neck and handed it to Willow. The witch took back Sidonie's gift and smiled brightly at the teen while putting the choker back where it belonged on her own neck. No words were exchanged and none were necessary the three of them at the same time walked into the kitchen a beaming Dawn in between the two witches. All was right now in the teen's world (of course she didn't know Willow and Tara weren't together as everyone assumed when they left earlier).

The meeting with the Scoobies went well for the most part. Willow shared less with them than she did with Tara and they may have noticed, but she did share quite a bit. The time difference, her training and the fact that she couldn't give them notice that she wasn't as dead as they thought. The one thing she didn't share was details about Sidonie and their relationship. It was enough she'd told Tara, the others got nothing more than some random person rescued her and got her to Ysandre who saved her. Willow was a very private person when it came to her relationships and she was nowhere near ready to discuss details with people who no longer really knew her, though one day she might if they repaired their friendship. She refused to even let Sidonie's name cross her lips and Tara let that stand. The blonde witch may have understood some Willow's feelings for this other woman even if she didn't have enough of the story to understand completely.

"So that's where you learned to fight like that Red, I must say you got some mad skills."

"Thanks Faith. "

"Yeah that was great Will" Buffy said "I just wish the watchers had proper entries about these Wouj Trezor so we could have been more prepared for them".

"Those weren't Wouj Trezor." 

"What do you mean Willow? I looked them up myself vegetarian scavenger demons who are non-violent." Dawn said sounding a bit confused by Willow's assertion.

"I lived near a clan of the demons you were captured by that's how I learned their language. They are Trezor Ble and there aren't really that many differences between the two tribes except the colors of their offspring and their cultural habits. Trezor Ble are born blue and turn red as they get closer to puberty, they do hunt and eat meat and they train their children to fight from the time they can walk without falling. It's very easy to confuse the two if you don't know the difference as Trezor Ble aren't typically found on Earth. Wouj Trezor can be found here though they keep to themselves and they are red all their lives."

"Then why were they here starting trouble?" Buffy asked grumpily.

"Their leader said they lost a treasure. They refer to children as treasures as they value children above all else I think someone took one of their children and they were looking for it. They tried getting home only after they looked for awhile with no luck."

"Why would anyone want to take one of their kids?" Xander asked.

"I have no idea but keep an eye out while patrolling just in case the kid is still out there." Willow said directing the last part of her comment to Buffy and Faith who nodded.

From there the Scoobies just spent the rest of the evening truly enjoying each other's company for probably the first time in a few good months. Xander looked at Buffy without any trace of ill will for once and Buffy was more solicitous towards Faith. Giles, Tara and Willow had a long conversation about magic and the details of Willow's training. The mood was spoiled however when Buffy spoke on a subject that Xander and Anya would rather have forgotten about completely.

"Spike's friend came through with the reports and information about our resident psychopathic priest. I think now that Willow is back it is a good time to go after him and try to get him out of the equation for the First maybe we'll even find what he supposedly has of mine. I don't think we'll have surprise on our side but at least we'll have more fire power." She said looking over at Willow pointedly near the end. 

"Hell no, absolutely not! You'll leave us out of this we are not your cannon fodder!" Anya raged, something that none of the others had ever seen her do before. Standing up she continued "you'll not put me or my Xander in danger again!"

Everyone watched in shock as the pissed off ex demon slammed her chair back under the table and stalked off rage forming an almost visible aurora around her. Xander stood up too after a moment hurrying after his wife without so much as a word or even a glance back at the others. Dawn then surprised everyone by standing up too. She turned to Buffy holding out her wrists so that the scars showed pink against her skin.

"I think I'll stay home this time Buffy" she said blandly then left the room.

Buffy looked blankly around the table. Everyone else appeared to be in some sort of shock though Tara managed to shake herself out of it in order to go after the distraught teen and comfort her. Willow just sat still worry on her face, the thought crossed her mind that she wasn't nearly as successful as she'd thought in countering the First's arguments earlier. If it was this bad with the Scoobies she shuddered to think how bad it was among the Potentials.

TRWTRWTRW  
* For more on this read The Red Witch Outtakes- The Demon Assassin.


	14. Thirteen

The Red Witch

Chapter 13

"Well that went well." Faith stated sarcastically.

"We need to do something now before this gets too out of control." Willow said as calmly as she could manage. "No doubt the Potentials heard at least Anya and if we can't show them take we have a handle on the First there will be a mutiny."

Buffy was still looking stunned too stunned to do or say anything. But no one could blame her really so much had happened in the last year, the last half year especially and it was a bit much for any one person even a Slayer. Still they really couldn't afford to have Buffy fall apart now there was still so much that had to be done quickly. Willow felt bad in this moment for having pulled her friend from a place where she had earned a spot, a place of everlasting peace and contentment. It was something she had spent many nights and days thinking about the consequences of her actions that day. Because though the others helped she was the one who carried the ritual, the one who sacrificed life for life and ripped apart the fabric of space and time apart to drag Buffy back. Back into this world with its seemingly endless pain and suffering and fighting especially for a Slayer. If they were able to defeat the First it would be Willow's duty to ease Buffy's burden as best she could because the girl deserved a rest, some peace.

"I think," Giles spoke up in Buffy's place."That all this can be sorted tomorrow after everyone has had some time to calm down and we can all come at this rationally."

"G-man I don't think that we should let this sit that long, something like this isn't going to lead to anything good especially if we let it sit." Faith said a hint of worry in her voice.

Everyone looked to Buffy who simply got up and left the table walking out the kitchen door and into the night without a word her expression still blank.

Willow sighed and figuratively stepped up to fill the void the Slayer left. Easing the petite blonde's stresses would have to begin now it seemed. "I agree with Faith, but I don't think we have much of a choice right now. The longer we let things stand the worse it will all get, but I doubt we can actually get everyone calm and rational enough to discuss this tonight. So tomorrow morning Faith you talk to the girls who stay with us get a feel for how they are doing and try to calm them down if necessary. Giles you'll do the same for the ones who stay here and hopefully smaller groups will help us clear the bad vibes better than one big group of overly emotional teenagers.

I will talk with Xander, Anya, Tara and Dawn while you guys talk to the girls. I don't think we'll have any problems with Spike he's in it for the fight, but we'll get him here when we meet up again tomorrow afternoon. We can assess the damage then and make more plans."

"A reasonable plan but what about Buffy?" Giles asked gesturing at the back door which was still open.

"That I will deal with tonight. I think Buffy and I have a lot to talk about anyway and today is as good a day as any for that. She shouldn't be alone out there."

"Alright Red, I guess we've all got our marching orders I'm going go to bed now I think I'm going to need all rest I can get for tomorrow." Faith said standing and stretching. "I'll look for Spike tonight first though and let him know what's going on and what the plan is."

The other two nodded and stood as well Giles left the kitchen mumbling about some book he was reading while Faith and Willow walked out the door. They walked together for a few minutes both silently contemplating recent events, but it wasn't long before they separated Faith headed towards Spike's crypt where the vampire had gone when Giles kicked him out of the basement and Willow continued in the direction she though Buffy may have gone. A quick modification of her and Tara's fairy light spell showed her that she had chosen the right direction. Eventually she caught up with her quarry in the center of one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries. Buffy rested on the dirt under a large and stoic oak tree, it's branches stretched toward the sky while the Slayer lay against the sheltering tree curled in upon herself head and hands on her knees at its roots.

Willow sat down beside Buffy without speaking, breathing in deeply the still and silent air. Unlike the normal graveyard silence which masked the undead lying in wait, there was no sense of anyone other than the two of them being there at that moment. Willow took the opportunity to meditate a little as she waited for Buffy to acknowledge her. She was able to extend her senses out over the dark, damp earth and restful air and confirm that she and Buffy were the only creatures living or non-living in this place.

TRWTRW

The two sat for at least four hours in the silence barely moving neither making any moves toward the other that would establish a connection. It was as if the two of them were each alone under the tree keeping the tree company and the other could have simply been a large rock. Buffy was lost in a storm of thoughts and emotions, too much had happened too quickly and she was no longer holding it together. Were it not for the tree solid and reassuring at her back she would have broken down completely hours ago. A lot was being asked of her and she was no longer sure that she could handle it Slayer or not she was only human and for the past half year and even before she'd been carrying the weight of the world, the other Scoobies, and random teenage girls on her shoulders... it was too much.

After all just a year ago she was dead, as in angel in the sky reunited with her mother and peace something that she'd never had since becoming a slayer was hers at last. She dug herself out of her own grave after being pulled from heaven. About six months after that she was nearly died yet again and was alive only because she was lucky enough that the bullet missed her heart by an inch. Then there was Willow's magic issues and her death, keeping Tara from falling to pieces, dealing with Xander's anger and hostility, Dawn's grief, Faith's presence, Giles and his horde of teenagers, the First and Caleb, and some really ugly uber vamps. And then Willow came back from the dead, Dawn nearly died while she watched helplessly and Xander lost an eye barely escaping with his life. Add to that almost all the girls under her care had been injured some more than once and some quite severely, and most of that was her fault either because she did it herself or she had them in a position to be hurt.

Under the circumstances she was really surprised she didn't fall apart sooner. Giles expected her to protect these girls, but that required that she train them up so they can protect themselves (because she can't be everywhere) and use them to fight the entity that was trying to destroy them in the first place (so they could eventually go home). So basically she ended up training a small "army" of wannabe Slayers who looked to her to keep them safe and counted every single injury against her, even if she could not have possibly prevented them. Add to that her "army" was made up of hormonal, moody, and irritating teenage girls and it was luck that she hadn't killed them all herself to save some trouble. After all, Dawn was bad enough on her own.

Something had to give or she just might take a permanent vacation in the world that lay inside her head, that or dive head first into concrete again. Buffy sighed and for the first time since the witch came and sat beside her she turned towards Willow and studied her. The witch had her eyes closed and was seated in the lotus pose a sense of calmness emanated from her and Buffy realized that part of the reason she was pulling herself together was because of the tranquility Willow gave off.

"Why did you come back Willow?'

The witch looked startled as if she'd forgotten where she was or that Buffy was there then gave the Slayer a questioning look.

"You were gone everyone thought you were dead, but you had a whole other life with your teacher and she wanted you to stay. You were happy there I could see that much when you talked about it. I know there are things you didn't tell us about us about your time away and I don't blame you for that. You had a choice and you made it I just want to know why."

"I owed it to you and everyone else. The First was only able to get free because I brought you out from heaven. If I hadn't then the First would never have been able to gain ground here and we wouldn't be facing this particular apocalypse. I couldn't stay when I knew this was my fault. So I am here to help."

"Sometimes I really wish that I was still dead. Life is uncomplicated as a dead woman, you float and rest and contemplate nature or the meaning of existence or your navel lint whatever works. Life is far too complex and messy and I was done with it not once but twice now (three times if you count coding on the operating table) and both times, I was brought back I left peace and harmony for utter chaos. I think about it a lot what would have happened if I stayed dead, whether or not everyone else would have been better off and whether or not I'd have been better off when I could see what was happening. Sometimes I find I'm glad you brought me back and sometimes I really hate you for it. Other times I feel both glad and hateful, happy and utterly enraged and it doesn't seem to have any sense to it at all." 

The Slayer sighed and seemed to sink back into the tree seeking comfort.

"I don't want to hate you Willow, I really just want to go back to the way things were before. Back when we were still the best of friends and neither of us had died or went away. Can we pretend for a while and maybe if we pretend hard enough it will be true. At least until this current mess is all over because it's too much to feel and still try to save the world. I'm gonna go nuts."

"I don't want you to hate me either Buffy, but I'm not sure that pretending is going to actually help. It only pushes things into the background and allows them to fester. I'm sorry I hurt you by bringing you back, at the time I was only thinking of how much I missed you and how much we needed you here, it was selfish. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have done it even though at the time we thought you were trapped in a hell dimension."

"I'm sorry I didn't pay attention when you needed me the most, that I didn't give you the support you deserved as my best friend." 

"I forgive you Buffy and I hope one day you may forgive me. What I want now is to help you and to put the First back where it belongs since it can't be destroyed. And hopefully along the way we can get our friendship back on track."

"I want that too. Can we sit here a little longer I'm not ready to go back yet."

"Sure." Willow paused then thinking about whether or not to say what she knew needed to be said. A glance at Buffy had her speaking again determined to ease Buffy's mind some. "Dawn wasn't really upset with you, you know. "

"I know, this was her first brush with death and if she decides to continue being a Scooby it won't be her last. I wanted to protect her from this, but she could have been hurt even if she had stayed home like I wanted. Being my sister she's going to be in a lot of scary situations and I can't protect her all the time."

"Then we'll have to help her learn to protect herself just like the other girls are learning. It's necessary for anyone living in Sunnydale really but her especially since she gets kidnapped so often."

The corner of Buffy's lip twitched a bit as if she was fighting a smile, but she nodded in agreement to Willow's statement. Dawn would have to learn because Buffy couldn't be everywhere all the time even a Slayer is only one person. She'd thought of that herself while she sat there under the tree. She also thought of having Faith be the primary trainer of the Potentials while she focused on other things. After all Faith was a Slayer too and it was time that Buffy acknowledged that she had changed and try to get over some of their past. It would be one way to get rid of a little of the stress in her life, delegate. Then she would be free to take on sizing up Caleb herself. Whatever else they did it was time to stop being reactive and become more proactive otherwise they would always be on the defensive and they couldn't win against the First like that. It needed to be done, she knew that, but it would help if everyone wasn't against her.

"And Xander's injury wasn't your fault even if Anya doesn't see it that way. They weren't supposed to go in only to find where Caleb's hideout was they should have waited. When you are fighting evil as regularly as we do things happen and they can't always be avoided or predicted."

Buffy sighed and looked out over the dark graveyard. "I know that too, still I'm the one in charge so I'm the one who gets all the blame. And it's my plans that get people hurt and there isn't really anything that I can do about that except try to plan better unless I suddenly get someone who can look into the future for me. Or I could give up and let someone else take over while I take a very long vacation, but I don't see that working unless it's you I leave in charge."

"I wouldn't blame you for taking off, but it wouldn't be the same without you and the First wouldn't stop hunting you just because you left. You'd be vulnerable and it'd be very upsetting if something happened to you and I wasn't there to help. Just like when I found out you'd been shot. Besides your leaving would only change who got the blame because bad things would still happen it is inevitable in these conditions."

"Wouldn't make me very happy in the end anyway to know I'd left you all to this mess. But I will take some kind of break after this, let Faith be the Chosen one for a while."

"I think that's not a bad idea. If anyone deserves a break Buffy you do."

TRWTRWTRW

When the two women finally headed home the sun was beginning to show in the east. It was the time of day where any vamps or demons still out and about would quickly seek their beds. Despite the lack of sleep, the excitement of last night and sitting all night on dew damp grass and dirt both Buffy and Willow felt reasonably refreshed and awake enough to deal with at least the early morning. This was good because there was still the matter of everyone's lingering resentments to be dealt with as well as planning future moves.

Buffy agreed to take on Willow's responsibilities with regards to Tara and Dawn as she needed to have a long conversation with her sister anyway. Obviously Dawn was suffering more from her near brush with death than she'd let show and as big sister Buffy was going to try to ease her through this time. Giving Faith responsibility over the juniors would give her more time for that as well, which made the idea sound even better.

Still Willow was left with the hardest job of all... Hurricane Anya.


	15. Fourteen

The Red Witch

Chapter 14

Willow floated upon a fluffy cloud that smelled faintly of lemons and even more faintly of vanilla. She could not open her eyes. She was trapped in the same darkness she'd fallen into before, yet she was too tired and too comfortable to be as afraid as she should have been. There was a hint of light to her left though it wasn't something that she could see really, but she could sense it at the very edges of her cloud as if it were trying to attract her attention, to tempt her into noticing it fully. Willow struggled to turn to it to see it and then she realized that she could not move, that she did not have the strength to even twitch a finger. The effort she put in though made her so much more tired than she had been before and oblivion called again. She tried next to use the faint sense of light to see something anything in the dark she was in. And it was only then that she realized that she could not feel any part of her body at all not even whether or not her eyes were open or closed. She was completely cut off from her physical self as though she were some kind of ghost or worse, because ghosts at least could move around.

Now the panic began to set in as she could not tell if she even existed, if she was even alive. She felt herself floating (whatever "herself" was) but she had very little tangible connection to anything outside her thoughts and even that was slight due to exhaustion. She could not feel any part of her body or make it move. Even the light she sensed was beyond her ability to confirm its presence, for all she knew she made it up so that she would not be totally alone and broken in the dark. The only thing she was even the least bit sure of was the feel of the cloud under her and the very faint scents that accompanied it, unfortunately that was not enough to soothe her.

Before her panic became full blown however another of her senses became active and she realized that she could hear something, that there was something to hear. Water sloshed gently somewhere close by and two voices carried on a conversation somewhere near the water. The voices sounded female as far as she could tell and one sounded older than the other reminding her of her beloved bubbe who died while Willow was still in elementary school. She felt comforted by the thought of her grandmother and gave herself over to listening to the words with all the attention she could given her fatigue.

"She's not waking Mother. Shouldn't she be awake by now? It has been days since the healing." The sounds of water stopped, which helped Willow focus more on the voices.

"She'll wake in her own time precious. There was more than physical wounds for her to heal and some wounds require more time and care than others."

"What do you mean?" A sensation of cool like an ice cube rubbed along fevered skin, filled Willow's being and surrounded her soothing a pain she had not before been aware of.

"Surely you felt it my daughter as it was very obvious to me and you were closer to her in the healing than I. She carries many scars some fresh and some very old and many self inflicted, yet none of those that concern me lay on her person. Emotional abrasions and mental ones take more energy and more will to overcome. When she does awake, which won't be soon, she and I will have lots of work to do."

"Mother I could..." The feeling of soothing coolness stopped and left Willow wishing for it to return.

"You could, but you won't. This young one will hate me by the end of things and she will need a friend. You no doubt have many similar experiences in common and you are better suited for a friendly confidant role because of that. Let me be the one who breaks her so she may be rebuilt." Water began sloshing again closer to Willow than it had before.

"She will not hate you forever Mother, I couldn't."

"No stubborn as you are that you couldn't do." Amusement and affection showed clearly in the tone of voice strengthening Willow's impression of this woman being something like her bubbe. The coolness was back and with the call to oblivion stronger than before. There was no ignoring it this time and before she had time to notice all though and awareness ceased.

TRWTRWTRW

"Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, four have gone astray..." Sang an annoying blonde vampire right next to the ear of an irritated dark haired Slayer.

Poor Faith had just barely closed her eyes after having returned from her task when she was disturbed by Kennedy or mini Faith as some called her. Kennedy had been quite purposely left at the Summer's residence when new sleeping arrangements were made for the Potentials. So having the talkative brunette leaning over her meant nothing good. As it turned out it was a really, really bad omen to be awakened by an overeager Potential in the middle of the night. Four of the newer girls from Buffy's place had taken off once all the Scoobies had either left or fallen asleep. Apparently they were stupid enough to believe the First and were making a bid for freedom and thus depriving Faith of her rest because Buffy was still AWOL and Willow with her.

Two of the four had come with the newest group of girls from South America and one had never had a run in with the bringers at all. No doubt she saw the Scoobies as evil entities that brought her into danger rather than saviors who rescued her from it. Faith had no idea which way they might have gone but the bus station or airport were probably good places to start. Tara was woken and had agreed to do a locator spell, which probably was useless because the girls had taken all their belongings and were not demons that gave off strong signals. Still she was going to try with Anya's help while Xander drove to the bus station and Giles tried the airport. Faith had opted to attempt to track them on foot a task that was made both easier and harder when Spike spotted her and joined in. 

Faith was still not comfortable with William the Bloody even though he was supposedly a "good" vampire. Truth be told she still had issues with Angel sometimes though she owed him everything and counted him a friend. Buffy always got along better with the vamps than she did. Faith was more likely to kill a vamp on sight than exchange witty banter or kiss them. Then there was the fact that Spike as he was called now had killed two Slayers before. Faith had no idea why Buffy kept him around, even if he was occasionally handy, had it been up to her he'd have been ashes years ago.

It had been half an hour since Tara had called an reported her third failed attempt at the locator spell. Faith hadn't expected that it'd be that easy anyway. Everyone else had assumed the girls had run off and stayed together, but Faith wasn't so sure of that. After all three of the girls lived in completely different continents than North America and the other lived out in Idaho somewhere. If they were all trying to go back home then a bus would be easier and cheaper for Julie than the others and there were several that ran at night despite the risk from nightlife (and perhaps because of it). She and Spike were taking the long way to the bus station, which was very near the ominous "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign. Xander was supposed to check the bus station then make his way slowly back towards them so that they could meet in the middle, but Faith had a bad feeling. It told her that if Julie or the others had gone that way then they never reached their destination.

Faith's ringtone blasting out into the sudden silence startled both Spike and her. She had been intently surveying the area for any hint that the Potentials had come that way and Spike had just stopped singing while he studied the entrance of a play park across the street. Glancing at the id on the phone Faith quickly answered the call and stopped walking when she noticed Spike had stopped and was still staring at the park with his head cocked a little.

"Any news G-man?" Faith asked suddenly worried he'd found something they'd end up wishing he didn't.

"Faith I found three of our missing girls..." Faith could practically hear him cleaning his glasses through the phone which was not a good sign. 

"Spit it out G-man we don't have all night here." Faith said in a rush because she turned to follow Spike who'd began to make his way toward the park at a quick pace while taking deep breaths of the night air.

"They're dead. All three of them. I found them just outside the airport on the side of the road... They've been torn apart, demons most likely maybe even Turok Han, some have bites." A sigh followed by a chocked noise that could been G holding back a sob. "I'm going to get them out of the street then take them somewhere until we can put them to rest."

"Damn G. This is so fucked up." Faith was brought to a standstill by the news, but Spike was still running up ahead of her. "Was the blonde with them? Julie?"

"No just Amerika, Lucia and Portia."

"Alright, well I think Spike might be smelling her now then, he is running towards something. I'll call you back when I find something tell Xander not to go back unless he hears from us we might need a car."

"Got it. I hope you find her alive Faith, I truly do."

Faith hung up and then took off full speed after Spike. She wasn't so sure Julie would want to be found alive, not if the things that found her fellow Potentials had found her. Damn. 

Faith ran as fast as she could to catch up with Spike, but she'd lost track of him during her call with Giles. So she did the best she could to stretch her Slayer senses to find him. Using those she got an impression of a large group of vamps up ahead. Running even faster than she thought she could she soon came upon a big fight as Spike had taken on a group of seven vamps. Looking around before joining the fray she spotted a blond head of hair laying upon the grass attached to a very still figure. For a second she debated going to the girl or fighting, but when one of the vamps broke off from the battle to go after the girl again she ran and tackled him away from her.

Pulling her stake out she stabbed the startled bloodsucker in the heart then took a brief look at the girl who was still breathing with a steady pulse even if it wasn't as strong as Faith would have liked. She then joined Spike fighting back to back with him. This group while not Turok Han, was almost as bad. The vamps looked as if they had not been feeding regularly which made them even more dangerous than normal. They fought savagely biting, kicking, and clawing at Spike and Faith without any strategy except to hurt them and probably drain Faith's blood as well as the girl's. Spike had dusted one before Faith joined him so with the one Faith took out that left them with 2 to 5 odds. So even with the extra viciousness of the vamps and the branch to the back of the head Spike took the two of them managed to end the fight quickly enough.

Faith checked over the girl more thoroughly. There were several severe bite marks on her that showed lots of bruising as well as a broken arm and probably several cracked if not fractured ribs. Faith wanted to avoid going to the hospital because the wanna be Slayer would be more vulnerable away from everyone especially given the way the night has gone. So making a decision and hoping it wasn't the wrong one she called Xander then Giles. Dawn was not long away so Spike would go back with her to Buffy's and with any luck either Tara or Willow would be able to help the girl without requiring major medical intervention and splitting their forces further.


	16. Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter is a little gruesome and dark.

The Red Witch

Chapter 15

Warning: This chapter is a little gruesome and dark.

Xander lay curled in a dark, quiet corner of a dark, quiet room softly moaning. He was soaked head to toe in cold blood, which had long since began to clot and dry into that almost black color and hot salty tears. Having laid curled in the fetal position for quite some time his clothes had become rigid with all the disturbing liquid that saturated them. The sun had rose and set again in the time he had been lying there and when the sun had been out one was able to see the floor of the room in which Xander lay though they might have wished they hadn't.

On the floor some distance from Xander were six bodies and a gore covered ax. Five of the bodies once belonged to some particularly vicious demons though now they were a mix-mash of arms, torsos, heads and legs. Body parts were spread all over the floor some of them still attached where they should be, but most were not. Spilt stomach and intestinal contents added to the powerful stench that pervaded the room a mix of decay, wanton evil, and innocence lost. The sixth was that of a young girl unrecognizable now due to the wounds and blood that covered her. The only thing that stood out about her now was her bright yellow shirt with the white and black dog cartoon (covered in red), her short auburn hair and chocolate eyes. Eyes wide open, once in fear and pain, lifeless and empty now. 

It was a scene straight out of some horror movie nightmare in which Xander had starred. The ax had cut up and down and side to side violently with almost inhuman force and speed, it had remained in motion even after the last demon had ceased twitching. Again and again moonlight flashed along the steel until his arms absolutely refused to move anymore and he nearly fell where he stood in the midst of it all. He had crawled to his current position emptying his stomach along the way, despair and grief drowning him. Again he was far too late to save anyone, he had failed someone else's friend, someone else's sister. Unfortunately the act of extreme rage did not soothe Xander's pain because while locked in his own mind as he was then, he still screamed as he done out loud hours ago "she's gone, you murdered her she's gone!"

Some time later Xander had found himself home though he had no idea how he got there as his last memory was of seeing the girl being devoured by the demons. He didn't even remember killing any of the demons though he knew he must have. It was just barely night, in an hour or so dawn would bring burning light and purification. He made his way to the bathroom stiffly as though he were an arthritic octogenarian. It was only when he looked into the mirror there that he realized the sorry state of his clothing and smoke and blood stained skin. Seeing the ax in the mirror, a favored birthday gift from his Willow shaped friend, with the chunks and black smears solidified his suspicion that he'd performed the brutal acts which forced him to burn an old warehouse to the ground. He was lucky that no one human had seen him walk home. Something he felt safe assuming because he was not currently in police custody nor trying to evade being in police custody.

It took him nearly one hundred and twenty minutes to feel as if he were clean and by then his hot water had run cold as ice adding to the chill he already felt inside himself. After dressing warmly he scrubbed his ax thoroughly then polished it until it shone before putting it away, an engrained habit that brought no pleasure or satisfaction this time. Only after that did he think to wonder where his fiancée was. After a quick check of the apartment bedrooms and closets where found no sign of her he ended up in the kitchen. There he saw the note on the table:

Xander,

I don't know where you are. Buffy and the others are helping me look for you. Please don't be dead, I would be very upset if you are. If you are not dead and you come home and read this please stay there! Call me and I will come as fast as I can. Please come home Xander please be alive, I need you.

Love,

The Future Mrs. Anya Emmanuela Jenkins Harris

Anya was a former demon. If anyone could understand his grief driven need for vengence she would. Taking a deep breath he mentally prepared to hear his future wife's voice knowing that once she came home he'd have lots of explaining to do. Not that it mattered because he needed her just as much as she needed him and right now that was a great deal.

TRWTRWTRW

The sight of Julie's body had brought back to Xander many unpleasant memories, which were all quite painful to remember. Based on what he saw, he could imagine that the same demons that hurt the red haired girl and Willow could have been the same that hurt Julie except they'd died at his hand. Lucky for him Anya understood and as a former vengeance demon her only complaint, once he'd finally made it home and explained, was that she'd been left behind. As she said vengeance had been her gig and who better to have along on a mission like that. To his surprise he'd agreed with her. He originally thought to protect Anya from his darker urges, but how stupid was that! She had been a demon and no doubt she understood him at that time better than he'd understood himself.

Still what he'd done was not something he shared with anyone else, he doubted that anyone else would have understood how deep he'd gone into his grief except maybe Faith or Spike. But then he had other reasons not to talk to Spike and Faith was never one of his friends before though she could be now if he allowed it. That night Xander went on a rampage was the same night that Spike had told them what he'd heard about Willow's fate on the demonic grapevine. Xander had ceased speaking to Buffy then and even if they had still been on speaking terms, he would not have wanted to share such a dark part of himself with anyone else. 

They were very nearly back to the house and Xander hoped that Willow had made it back already. While it didn't seem any of Julie's wounds were immediately fatal on their own he really wanted both the group's witches there to assure her health. He didn't want to be too little too late for a third time.

TRWTRWTRW

Anya and Tara worked steadily over the blond slayerette as she lay still upon the kitchen table. The rest of the Potentials stood back around the edges of the room watching intently. The few who were not up before had been woken up by the activity that accompanied Faith and Xander's return with the injured girl. At this point it was sinking in for them how much danger they were in if it hadn't before. The news of the deaths of three of their fellows put a real damper on the mood of the room which was silent except for Anya's potion mixing and Tara's spell chanting.

Faith and Xander sat on the porch outside the house both too anxious about the situation to be any closer than necessary to what was going on inside. They'd discussed leaving to find Buffy and Willow but had decided to give Anya and Tara some time to work before running for aid as if they believed the two incapable of helping Julie. Honestly without her demon abilities Anya was best at potions and very weak spells. And Tara though she was born to magic through her mother's line was better at directing the spells to do her will exactly rather than making them powerful enough to actually do all that she wanted. Faith figured that had to be a sore point in the blonde's relationship with Willow though it made them perfect for each other. Willow had oodles of power, despite being a novice she had succeeded in returning Angel's soul a feat Tara could only dream of, but she lack a great deal of control and spent her time mastering that. While Tara who'd been a practicing wiccan since childhood and had excellent control would never have the power to accomplish higher level spells without assistance. One either had such power or they did not.

Faith recalled that Willow had brought her back from death's doorstep and healed the ruin of Xander's eye. This fact was a major factor in her decision to skip the hospital though Willow wasn't at the house when they'd arrived unfortunately. However, while Julie was badly injured she wasn't critically so as far as she knew, so she wasn't in desperate need of super healing unless the vamps she ran into happened to be rabid. 

This line of thought about Willow led Faith to think of some things that she had been actively avoiding thinking about. She was attracted to this new version of the red haired witch. High school Willow was all fluffy sweaters and both suspicious and jealous of Faith's relationships with the other Scoobies (what little relationship she'd managed with them anyway as the constant outsider). That pushover version of Willow was barely worth an afterthought to Faith then. However this new Willow was more confident and strong as well as sexy. She typified for Faith the kind of romantic partner she'd always wanted and yet was afraid to have. Anyone who knew the kind of people Faith "dated" before her stint in prison would assume that she was only into submissive or promiscuous people who were in her life only as long as it took to get off. 

The truth is that Faith had always wanted was what she'd never had a solid stable relationship with someone who saw her as worth more than a night's entertainment. She chose people who could never give her what she truly desired because she was afraid. She feared that there wasn't anyone that could see her as someone valuable and worth getting to know beyond the superficial fronts. No one in her entire life besides maybe Angel had ever looked at her that way. Not even her first watcher whom she'd been very attached to and especially not her mother who'd abandoned her as a child without looking back. So Faith had partied indiscriminately and made sure she was always on top, but she wanted more and now she felt she was ready to try for it. She wanted someone who'd care for her and look after her without being overbearing someone who wouldn't judge her for her past or leave her when it was convenient for them. Someone she could trust to carry her when she was feeling lost. That person would have to be confident and strong in order to put up with Faith's own personal brand of crazy as well as capable of being totally immersed in her slayer life without being consumed by it. However with the current crisis she couldn't really go out to find her perfect match. And while she liked the idea, she wasn't sure if she'd be stepping on Tara's toes or not if she pursued Willow, that relationship still wasn't clear to her.

Faith was drawn out of her thoughts when Xander stiffened next to her. Straightening up from her leaning position against the front porch's railing she instantly saw what caught his attention. Willow and Buffy had finally made their way back from wherever they had been, appearing two blocks down from Buffy's home. Buffy had left her cell phone in the house when she made her flight from the Scooby meeting and Willow didn't have one as far as any of them knew, so both had been unreachable during the night's events. A quick glance shared between her and Xander expressed their mutual anxiety over having to share the latest calamity with Buffy. The two women were walking quickly enough that Faith and Xander had less than a minute to discuss how to break the news before either woman tried to enter the house. 

"Buffy is going to be even more upset." Xander started "I'm not sure there is any way to make this easier for her to bear."

Faith nodded in agreement with his statement then took in a slow breath her eyes fixed on her fellow Slayer. "Best to rip the band aid off fast then."

The two moved in such a way as to subtly block the front door before the two women reached it. Buffy, who looked very tired and lost in thought completely missed the move. But Willow was more aware than her companion and her eyes narrowed as she stared at the two on the porch. The red head stopped two feet from the front steps and in doing so alerted Buffy to the anxiety projected by Faith and Xander, which quickly woke her up and got her attention.

"Spit it out" Buffy said exasperatedly, already knowing that whatever it was would only make her day worse. 

"Short answer;" Xander started " four of our Potentials took the First at her word and ran off last night. We're pretty sure that they were trying to run back home but the three new girls Giles brought were killed before they reached the airport and Julie we found near the bus station. She is still alive for now, but it looks like she's going to be down for awhile. Tara and Anya are working on her inside."

Willow closed her eyes and sighed loudly before moving past Xander and Faith, entering the house without another word. Buffy had shut down. Her face was an expressionless mask and even her body language was without any tells. Finally after five minutes of eerie silence, in which Xander and Faith could only watch her and await a reaction, she began to speak.

"Faith, I've decided to delegate. So the training of the stupid teenagers is your job now. I will try not to interfere in your decision making and you won't have to worry about me looking over your shoulder all the time. I have other issues to deal with and not just trying to keep these idiots alive." 

Having said her piece she walked off into the house tension radiating off her petite frame.

"She delegates and I get stuck with the wannabes" Faith groaned.

Xander turned to her and shrugged. "At least they look up to you and without Buffy butting in you can handle them your own way. After tonight I don't think any of them will be giving you trouble for awhile. Death and serious injury tends to put a damper on teenage rebellion."

"Maybe for normal teenagers but that never worked for me."

"Well Faithy you were rather special." Xander said somewhat jokingly.

Faith merely smirked at him and walked back into the house. Xander stared out into the distance for a moment gathering his composure, sighed and then with another shrug followed her.


	17. Sixteen

The Red Witch

Chapter 16

Enough was enough! Buffy thought. they were getting absolutely nowhere unless dead or dying counted as a place. Each day it seemed that someone else was grievously injured or killed and morale just kept dropping. Right now the First and its butt monkey Caleb held all the cards and they had nothing. She could not afford to let things go on as they were it was time for action. 

Buffy stood in alone against the wall watching Tara, Willow, and Anya finish their work on Julie and prep her to be moved into Tara's bed so the witch could keep a close eye on her. Buffy was giving off an air of totally pissed off and ready to Slay so it was no wonder that since she'd entered the house twenty minutes ago no one dared approach her. Once the three women surrounding the table stood back, Willow turned and nodded to Faith who was wearing a very pensive and anxious expression. Buffy remembered how hospitals gave Faith the wiggins apparently that included kitchens which had been transformed into hospital-like environments in order to treat wounded girls. Still Faith didn't hesitate when given the signal, she lifted Julie up into her arms gently and carried her up to the blonde witch's room. Buffy stepped forward as the three magic practitioners began cleaning up.

"Scooby meeting in one hour at Willow's. All the girls stay here, we need to get things worked out without them around. One way or another we are going to take the fight to the other side." Buffy then walked off in search of Xander and Giles who she'd last seen talking with Spike in the hall so it was likely that they were all in the basement now. She would find Faith after though no doubt the other Slayer would have heard from one of the three in the kitchen before she got back up there.

TRWTRWTRW

Later that morning the Scooby group sat around Willow's kitchen table each of them save Buffy filled with some level of anxiety about whatever Buffy was about to decree. Buffy stood against the wall again isolated from the others each of whom save Spike were seated in various chairs around the rectangular table.

"It's time." Buffy said simply stepping away from the wall and meeting the eyes of all her friends sitting around. 

"Time for lunch?" Xander asked half jokingly and half hopefully rubbing his nearly audibly complaining stomach.

"Time to take out Reverend Evil permanently and get whatever he claims to have."

Anya's face instantly went blank but tight at that. Willow raised an eyebrow but on the whole looked unsurprised. Spike and Faith were instantly more alert both suddenly radiating excitement at that idea. Tara and Giles though were both wearing similar expressions of worry.

"How do you plan to do this exactly?" Giles asked cautiously.

"Faith, your job is to select five of our best Potentials and sharpen them into Slaying machines over the next two days. I won't risk any more than that. And we won't wait to attack any longer than two nights from now. Tara you will pick three of the remaining girls and gather all the medical and food supplies you can before we strike, just in case. Anya you are on defense, so you, Giles and Xander along with the rest of the group will make stakes, sharpen weapons and set traps basically anything that you can think of to defend our bases and aid our fighters from a distance including potions. I think we can use a lot more of those sun in a bottle potions they worked well against Turok Han. Willow, Spike and I will be scouting out Caleb and his forces hopefully with some of the information we have now and whatever we find later, we will be well prepared to kick butt..." Buffy stopped speaking as Dawn began to stare at her intensely.

"What Dawn?"

"What about me?" the teenager spoke crossly.

"What about you?" Buffy asked confused by the query and upset at the break in her "General Summers" mode.

"Everyone else has a job to do. Am I supposed to just hang around and twiddle my thumbs while you guys do all the work?"

"You are our jack of all trades so you will work a little with both Tara and Anya's groups as needed. You will also be the go between for all the groups as needed." Buffy said sounding as if she'd had this in mind all along, though whether subconscious or not she'd left her sister out of her plans entirely. The urge to protect Dawn from all harm especially after the girl's near death was strong within her.

"I want to work with Faith." Dawn said decisively as if daring Buffy to disagree. But Faith spoke up before either sister could take it further and make their planning session into a sibling fight session.

"Buffy is right, Dawn. You are one of our best researchers and one of the most creative minds we have. You are better used as support and brains rather than brawn and we need you to do what you are best at."

Dawn opened her mouth to argue this as Buffy shot Faith a look of surprise mingled with gratitude, but before the teen could speak the other Scoobies including Anya spoke up in agreement with Faith defending Buffy's order. Dawn closed her mouth and sat half upset at being dismissed and half grateful to not have to be out on the front lines again even though she felt her place was at her sister's side danger or no danger. Buffy let the feeling of relief at not having to worry about Dawn in battle wash over her for a moment before she continued laying out her plans.

"When we go up against Caleb and his forces Faith and her group will play back up and Xander, Spike, Willow and I will be the first wave. Hopefully we will have gotten through most of Caleb's minions before we need to call in the girls so that we minimize their risk of being hurt. Already nearly half of them are out of commission for a while. Speaking of which Tara, Willow is there any way to speed up their healing process without running down your energy levels too much?" 

If Buffy was hoping to get it past Anya's notice that she was sending Xander into battle again by changing the subject she was able to see how futile that was within the next three seconds. Anya stood up her face red in her anger and stared Buffy down as she spoke.

"My Xander will not be fighting in anymore battles Slayer he will be here defending us where he belongs." She said with an air of finality her face a picture of "don't fuck with me". Xander had scooted down in his chair when Anya stood his face red in embarrassment when Anya saw fit to speak on his behalf as if he were her child and not her husband. He for one had no wish to risk his only remaining eye or the rest of his limbs or life in this never ending fight against evil, however he made his stand with Buffy in high school and he stood by it ever since. He could no more abandon his friends when they needed him most than he could stop his own heart from beating. Which made what he had to do next hard knowing that Anya wouldn't like it at all. So reluctant but resolved he had sat back up at the end of Anya's statement and prepared to speak but Buffy spoke first.

"Anya," she said meeting the ex-demon's eyes straight on speaking firmly yet calmly. "I understand not wanting someone you love put back in danger especially after they were seriously hurt, but I made this plan to give everyone the best chance of getting through this whole. We need everyone doing what they are best at and Xander is best in fight at my back, he keeps everyone going strong. I can't leave him behind."

"And yet you would leave your sister behind when the fighting starts. Does Xander's life mean anything to you?!"

"That's not fair Anya!" Buffy rejoined losing a little control over her temper at that callous remark. "He is my best friend and my brother despite how strained we are right now. I would never set him up to die or be hurt but I can't promise he won't be! I can't promise that for anyone not even myself! But this has to be done or we all die one or two at a time until the First takes over and dances on our graves! We no longer have the luxury of doing nothing or just reacting anymore. Once they succeed in killing these girls they will come after us. Whether you two stay with us or not you are in danger and we all have a better chance of living if we work together!" 

Willow saw Anya getting ready to continue the argument or escalate it and decided to head her off in order to prevent them from wasting time that could be used more constructively."I will take responsibility for Xander's safety in our battle Anya. You have my personal guarantee that if necessary I will lay down my life to ensure his. So you don't have to worry about that anymore."

Xander was angry that Anya put him into the position of looking weak in front of his friends, but more than that he was angry that she would put them in the position she had. Willow had just come back from the grave so to speak and he did not want to be the cause of her being forced back into it. If there was one thing he'd learned in his time as a Scooby and from his Halloween as a solider it was that life came with no guarantees and no plan survived contact with the enemy. Willow could not stay plastered to his each second in an intense battle like the one they were sure to be getting into two nights from now. If Willow had to split her attention by watching out for him specifically as well as herself while trying to achieve their end goals it was ten times more likely that she would be seriously wounded or killed. So he took a breath and prepared himself to do what he should have done when this first came up; face down his wife. Anya needed to understand that he was not okay with short changing his friends. That was not the kind of man he wanted to be and that is not who she married. Before he could though someone else spoke up.

"I'm with Red on this Anya," Spike said in a laid back manner at odds with what he was agreeing to. "Your boy got hurt on my watch last time, I've got his back you have my word as a demon."

"I don't need any baby sitters!" Xander declared angrily, turn to his wife after and speaking more calmly he said "Anya this has to stop I've been fighting this fight with Buffy long before we were even together. I can't promise I won't get hurt but I can't let you cripple our ability to fight back against the First either."

"Actually Xander you do need someone." Buffy stated in a no nonsense fashion though she had to know what she was saying would win her no points with her old friend. "You have a huge blind spot now and it would be all too easy for someone to take advantage of that. Losing you would cripple us more than anything else and I'm sure the First is well aware of that. It would put a split in the group that might never heal and make us all the more vulnerable like Willow's death did. I was ready to step in myself and keep an eye on you even though I hadn't planned to say that out loud. I feel better knowing two people are going in there with eyes on you and I bet Anya does too. So when we go in you stay close to at least one of them at all times and keep them on your blind side."

Xander looked ready to say something else until Anya agreed with Buffy that she felt better knowing Willow and Spike were willing to die to keep her man alive. That caused him to lose all steam and sit back in his chair with an exasperated sigh. Spike caught his eye and mimed flicking a whip at him with a wink and a smirk. Xander responded with a rude sign using his middle finger and a dark look. But glancing at his wife he couldn't help but soften a little. For all that she was sometimes crude, shrill, and annoying her actions spoke only of her love for him and he felt stronger than he had been before because he had that kind of love in his life. Spike was unlikely to ever get that especially from Buffy which gave Xander reason to smirk himself.

"Now that we have settled that, Giles, Xander part of your duty will be to take the remainder of the girls and train them a few hours each day until Faith takes them back so they don't lose any edge. Well that and we don't want them getting any bright ideas about running away or letting themselves be scared into stupidity. The busier they are the better off they are so Anya, Tara work them as hard as you can anytime they aren't training this includes Dawn." Ignoring Dawn's pissed off and offended expression Buffy continued to lay out her plan. 

TRWTRWTRW

An hour later the Scoobies had separated to begin doing their parts of the plan. The witches decided between them that since Tara's magical energy reserves were far smaller than Willow's she would reserve all her energy for Julie just in case there was an emergency situation. The idea was to allow some of the trauma the girl had taken to heal naturally before re-traumatizing her with an influx of foreign energy. Therefore it was Willow who accomapnied Faith to her meeting with the surviving Potentials in order to heal up some of them to an extent as to reduce their combined recovery time. This apparently was more tricky for the redhead than simply healing them all up perfectly because it took far more focus, strength, and control. However they couldn't afford to have Willow suffer the magical cost of healing all the girls if they wanted to maintain Willow's ability to fight.

The girls sat in Buffy's living room waiting patiently to hear from Faith. The Dark Slayer had found that they had all been sitting and waiting there to hear from someone since before the Scoobies had left, which made gathering them all together infinitely easier for her. Faith gestured to Willow and both of them took a seat on the couch after kicking off a few girls.

"So, according to Tara, Julie is going to live and barring any complications she should make at least a 90 percent recovery if not 100 percent. The other three are dead and will therefore not be recovering at all. I don't think I need to tell you guys how stupid their decision to run was. Had it not been demons or rabid vampires the bringers and Turok Han would have gotten them soon enough. The First lied. None of you will be allowed to simply leave and go home in peace, not until this is over. So we have to work together to make sure that this is over as soon as possible."

A number of the girls bowed their heads at this and looks of anguish were seen on almost every face. "In light of recent events we have decided to change things up a bit. I will now be directly responsible for your training while Buffy deals with everything else. To that end I'm going to split you guys up into squads 4-5 girls each so we should have about five. There will be a leader for each squad who will report to me and be responsible for making sure each of their members is keeping up with the training and learning what they need to know. Squad leaders will also be responsible for keeping up with their group members, meaning that if asked they will always know at least general locations of their girls and whether a not someone is likely to get themselves hurt.

"The squad leaders are Kennedy, Rona, Vi, Amanda, and Claudia. For the next two days they will be working with me exclusively learning their new duties and getting extra training so that they can teach the rest of you effectively when I can't.

"I will leave it up to the leaders to decide which girls are in their groups. It is important that all the girls be able to work together and tolerate each other because from here on out squads are expected to eat and sleep together and have each other's backs. This doesn't excuse any of you from helping out girls from other squads when they need it and it doesn't mean that I want you guys to compete against each other. This new set up is to make sure you guys are helping us to help keep you safe." Here Faith paused for a moment wanting to ensure that the girls really understood what she was telling them.

" Buffy, Giles and Xander have gone to bury our lost Potentials so tonight we will have a memorial. Right now though Willow is going to take out some time to partially heal everyone who needs it so you can be back to ship shape faster. After that squad leaders will get together and decide their groups and which girls will have to move to make that work. Then all of you will be expected to train together under your squad leaders to get used to the groupings. After dinner and the memorial I will take the squad leaders out for an all night training session so I suggest each of you also try to find time for a short nap.” Feeling a little off from having to give a speech and shoulder this new level of responsibility Faith stood up and took out the time to meet the eyes of each girl before she just walked off like she really wanted to.

"I'm going to get some lunch squad leaders be prepared with written reports of who is in your team and who is sleeping where tonight."

TRWTRWTRW

Faith waited in the cemetery closest to Willow's place for her squad leaders to show. Buffy wanted them trained into Slaying machines so Faith thought it best to start off with a test of their skills and stamina. It was still early enough that not many baddies were out hunting but late enough to ensure that the five girls would encounter at least one demon before they caught up to her. That and the fact that they actually had to track Faith in order to find her would constitute the first part of the test. Faith was not exactly hidden, but Sunnydale was full of more cemeteries than any normal town and Faith did not specify which one she had planned to wait in. She planned to keep them out until daylight in order to test their endurance and toughen them up. They would get few breaks and even once they had returned to Buffy's they would not get much rest until late afternoon.

Faith had been waiting half an hour already and if she hadn't gotten Willow and Spike to discretely trail the juniors she might have been worried. Those two of course knew exactly where the dark Slayer was but neither would tell the girls and they were asked to step in only if the girls ran into something they couldn't handle alone. Later that night just before daybreak the two would return to Faith's group and attack the Potentials. Depending on how many demons Faith's group ran into before then girls would be pretty tired and sloppy at that point. Faith hoped to see how well they were able to pull together and defend themselves when they were near the ends of their rope and feeling tired and worn. Faith of course was to be "taken out" early on in the attack by her disguised friends so that she could evaluate everything without the girls looking to her to save them.

If they passed the night to Faith's satisfaction then the next step was intense training in weapons tactics and hand to hand broken up periodically by surprise attacks from random members of the Scooby group. The idea being to force them to work together as well as separately during the attacks and to get them used to being attacked at any time in different ways. After all "constant vigilance" applied not only to wizards but Slayers too and their lives could depend on them following that motto closely. 

It took another 15 minutes before Faith heard the group of girls approaching. Faith was sitting in the upper branches of a large stout tree, which gave her an excellent view of the grounds and decreased chances that she would be spotted right away. A few moments after hearing them she finally saw them and their tail coming towards her. Willow spotted her first and placed a hand on Spikes shoulder silently stopping the vampire before waving at Faith and turning to leave. It was obvious the juniors had no idea they'd been follow because they were still walking ahead without looking back at all. None of them noticed Faith either and while she was high up she was still in plain sight if they'd bothered looking up, and this gave the Slayer an idea for an impromptu lesson.

Faith waited until the last potential had crossed under her tree before climbing down and silently stalking the group. Kennedy was in front with Rona barely a step behind and the other girls simply walking with Claudia happening to be last. They were looking around for Faith and random dangers and none of them made the mistake of calling out for her. But their failure to look up or behind was not doing them any favors. Once the group has passed a close circle of tall headstones Faith struck. She sped up behind Claudia and placing her left hand tight against the girl's mouth and her right arm around her chest she dragged the girl quickly behind the stonework. Claudia appeared terrified until she recognized Faith and then she was able to relax from her frozen state. Faith dropped her hands from the girl then put a finger against her lips warning her into silence before peeking out from behind the headstone to watch the others reactions.

To their credit Amanda and Vi noticed almost immediately that something was up probably because they had been closest to Claudia. They stopped and then called to the other two at which point all four began frantically searching and calling out for their missing member. Faith waited until the girls had begun moving in the absolute wrong direction before sighing quietly and standing, dragging the fifth squad leader up with her. Together the two of them left the concealment of the circle before Faith called out to her charges.

"You're late" then pointing at the girl standing slightly behind her " and you just let Claudia here be killed."The brunette junior was now sheepishly fidgeting probably embarrassed at being the one caught out by Faith even though the others were no better really. "I don't know why it took all of you 45 minutes to get to a place less than 5 minutes away from Buffy's, but you are all burning moonlight here."

As one four girls turned to glare at Kennedy who had the grace to at least blush faintly at what was clearly her bad decision. "You never told us which cemetery and there were three in the area we, um... I thought we should check the others that were closer to Willow's place cause you went there after you left us earlier." 

Faith shook her head and let it go as there were other things to cover. "Whatever, tonight you girls are going to be worked hard and I am not going to let you rest until you convince me you aren't going to get yourselves killed. Welcome to Slaying 101 Faith style."


	18. Seventeen

The Red Witch 

Chapter 17

"So, I figure we should get all the non Slaying stuff out the way before we get into training. First off, I picked you five as leaders because you were the most advanced of all the other girls. Buffy wants me to sharpen you guys into Slaying machines for a do or die mission we are going on tomorrow night. That gave me the idea for the squad thing and I am really hoping this works I can't deal with any more dead chicks. I need you guys to stay on top of the others so that we avoid just that. In any case you guys are good, but I need you to be fucking awesome by this time tomorrow. That's not a whole lot of time so you have to work as hard as you can and it would be great if you all remembered to look up and behind yourself from time to time. Being aware of your environment is probably the best lesson I can teach you now and it will definitely save your lives. Ok so, I need to know now who is sleeping where and on which team."

Vi handed Faith a 5 page single spaced dossier full of more information than Faith had asked for. "What the hell is this?" Faith asked briefly scanning the detailed document.

"We thought that you might appreciate more than just the basics." Vi responded. "This details not just the squad make up and who is sleeping where but also the general health of each girl along with their place of origin, age, any nicknames, and how likely each one is 'to go off the deep end' on a scale of 1 to 10. One being "mentally stable, no problems here" and ten being "someone needs to watch her at all times". We wanted to show you guys that we are grateful for all that you are doing for us and that we are taking this seriously."

A quick read through showed Faith that most of the girls were classified as somewhere between 4 and 6 even the five with her now. Shannon and Julie were listed as 8 and 9 respectively.

"We also thought it would help you to bond with us and encourage trust for you among the other girls if you knew more than our names." Claudia spoke up. "I for one was glad that Buffy gave our training to you, she was becoming overbearing and mean... You at least knew our names and took out time to get to know us a little. Tara was the only other one who did that and that was only when she wasn't crying so it didn't happen a lot. Buffy never seemed to bother and that more than anything upset a lot of the girls and made them less willing to work with her especially after she was the main reason so many of us kept getting hurt."

Faith nodded at this unsure exactly what to say to the revelations she'd been given. On the one hand she agreed with a number of their points, but she knew that it would only undermine her own authority, not to mention Buffy's, to verbally agree with anything and seem at odds with the other Slayer. In the end that wouldn't serve their purposes at all, but she would have to bring this up with the others at the next meeting if not before as they did need these girls to trust them. 

On the bright side, Kennedy's team stayed at Buffy's which meant Faith would get some peace from the brat, and the girls who were staying at Willow's in Claudia's and Rona's teams were all at least tolerable. It seemed as though they set things up so as to not have to move too many people around which Faith approved of. Still it was worth noting that Kennedy ended up with the largest squad even if it included Shannon who was still not completely on her feet and Julie who was not in any kind of shape to participate. When she questioned Kennedy the response actually made sense and was not based entirely on ego as expected. Kennedy for better or worse had actually had a Watcher before and therefore was better equipped to pass along the necessary knowledge to the injured girls even if her attitude was a bit much. For the first time since she was told to train the juniors Faith actually felt that this might work out for her as well as them because they were proving not to be completely helpless idiots.

"Alright girls it is time for part two of your test!"

TRWTRWTRW

After a long night of patrolling each and every cemetery Sunnydale possessed as well as several dark alleys, dawn was a mere hour away and the group had finally made its way back to their starting point. Faith knew that they were highly unlikely to run into anymore demons at this point and though she did little fighting herself wanting the juniors to soak up all the experience they could, she was feeling more than a little tired. Of course compared to the girls she was still fresh and ready to kick ass, they were all barely awake at this point. In fact, it looked as if Vi had fallen asleep against an old tombstone the moment she called a halt. Kennedy was in the process of nodding off against a tree, and the other girls were swaying where they stood eyes blinking shut and opening very slowly. Perfect.

Faith having the benefit of Slayer senses was well aware of the approaching pack of seven vampires and one semi-demon. Once she was able to see them and confirm through a pre arranged signal that it was who she'd been waiting for when she called the halt, she moved away from the vulnerable girls leaving them to defend themselves. The girls were unaware of both Faith's withdrawal and the approach of the other group until one vampire had caught up the sleeping Vi in his arms and bit into her neck. Then the noise of the attack woke them up and started the adrenaline pumping.

The girls were momentarily confused by the absence of their mentor, who had been giving advice on technique and strategy all night as well as randomly shouting "constant vigilance" because she got a kick out of that. Rona was the first to notice Vi's plight as the other girl had been unable to free herself from vampy arms and was weakening with blood loss. However, Rona was trapped in a fight against two ninja skilled vamps and was in no shape to help though she was able to alert the others to the problem. Amanda made a good effort to get to Vi but her own opponent was too good for her to disengage from right away. Kennedy managed to get close to the girl in trouble after killing two of her own attackers, but was blind sighted by a platinum haired vamp who looked vaguely familiar and was knocked down against a headstone. The resulting blow to her temple left her on her knees and dazed. 

Rona by now had dusted her weirdly skilled enemies and was turning to help when she noticed a flaming vampire running around aimlessly and screaming like a five year old girl. 'Stop, drop and roll' she thought to herself before breaking her bystander moment to refocus on getting to Vi. She found that her help was no longer needed however as Claudia the darkly dressed brunette had just come out of nowhere to frog-hop over the still kneeling Kennedy and bash into Vi and her captor causing all three to fall over. This caused the vamp to release the red head and focus on Claudia who had in hand a glow in the dark electric blue lighter with black skulls painted on it. She lit up the lighter and thrust it into the vamps face catching his bangs on fire before the flames quickly spread to the rest of his gelled hair.

All fighting stopped as everyone including the remaining two adversaries watched in awe as the flame haired vamp danced a strange jig before his head burst into dust. His body then collapsed and became dust as well.

"Well that was crazy" said the vaguely familiar female who'd been keeping Amanda occupied. This comment brought the girls' attention back to the remaining two fighters who took up ready stances.

"Enough" Faith called walking back into view. "I think we've done enough tonight. Spike sunrise is only 30 minutes away you should go. Thanks for the help." At this the faces of the two rippled briefly revealing Willow and Spike and the platinum haired vamp gave an exaggerated stage bow before turning to leave.

Faith turned to Claudia and clapped her on the shoulder in a friendly fashion. "Well done young CC, nice thinking to use whatever in hand as a deadly weapon."

"CC" the girl asked slightly wheezing now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off.

"Crazy-ass Claudia!" Faith exclaimed before bending to pick up the unconscious Vi after checking her pulse and wrapping a handkerchief around her neck. "Thanks for the help Red." She said to Willow before turning to the other girls. "Someone get Kennedy up it's time to pack it in, when we get back you guys have four hours to eat, sleep and shower before we begin again."

"What about Vi?" Amanda asked still a little stunned that her opponent turned out to be the red haired witch. "Is she going to be okay?"

"A little sleep, food and some of Anya's blood replenisher and she'll be fine." Willow answered as both she and Faith began walking to Buffy's leaving the Potentials to follow them at their own pace.

The three girls still standing looked at each other and shrugged, not awake enough to really process anything that just happened. Though the newly minted CC had a proud smirk on her face as she and Rona helped Kennedy to her feet and held themselves under her shoulders to help her walk as the last blow still had her reeling. Together the four slowly followed after their mentor all of them past ready for some type of rest.

TRWTRWTRW

Later that morning, an hour before Faith was due to wake her squad leaders and subject them to another few hours of intense training before allowing them to properly rest for the night's events, Buffy called a Scooby meeting to discuss progress. On her way into Willows kitchen, which had been designated the spot for private Scooby meetings as the girls spent their days at Buffy's place, Faith found herself stopped by Willow.

"Please keep your eye on Kennedy. I'd rather not be forced to heal her again." The red said frankly to her.

"Why did she do something? I can kick her ass if you want me too."

"No. It isn't anything she did exactly, she just made me really uncomfortable."

"How?" Faith asked curiosity getting the best of her.

"After that hit she took I thought the best way to prevent her concussion from worsening would be a little direct energy manipulation but her reaction to it... I'd rather not have to do it again so please make sure that she doesn't take anymore head blows, ok?"

"Show me." Faith said wanting to know if Kennedy's offense was something worth teaching her a lesson for. But only getting a raised brow in response. Faith quickly checked that their place in one of the halls leading to the kitchen was still clear of anyone but them. "Really show me I wanna know what you're talking about."

Willow shrugged then pushed Faith firmly into the wall and placed her hands on Faith's temples. Whatever Faith had expected it certainly wasn't what she got. The sensation stemming from Willow's fingers had her wet in seconds and fighting to hold back her moans of pleasure. Faith was trying her hardest not to let on to Willow how turned on she was but that was becoming impossible as she felt the begins of an orgasm tickling her lower regions. Thinking quickly she raised her hands from where they'd found themselves wound around Willow's waist and almost violently removed the witch's hands from her head.

Panting slightly she nodded at Willow without making any kind of eye contact. "Got it, no head blows for the juniors." She said weakly, missing Willow's smirk at her reaction. It wasn't until the red head had left to enter the kitchen that Faith began to regain her composure and was able to stand without support from the wall. Turning to follow the witch she caught sight of something out of her peripheral that had her spinning in the opposite direction. Tara and Spike stood in the other end of the hallway an expression of shock on Tara's face and a lascivious grin on the vampire's. Tara got over her shock quickly and shot an uncharacteristic glare at Faith before moving the rest of the way into the kitchen. Spike tapped his nose and winked at Faith before walking past her without saying a word and missing the rude gesture she made in response. Knowing how keen vampire's senses were she could imagine all too clearly what he'd smelled. Growling under her breath because she had no time to clean up before the meeting she stalked towards the kitchen making a mental note to shower again before waking her girls. A nice cold shower.

TRWTRWTRW

"So are we on track for tonight? Will your girls be ready in time Faith?" Buffy asked.

"Yes. They're all napping now but they'll be ready by go time even with the injuries from last night. I'll wake them up soon for last minute edge weapon practice and then let them eat and sleep some more so they'll be fresh." 

"Ok. Anya, Tara how are our stores looking?"

"We have enough to last everyone in each house one week if we can prevent the little locusts from eating everything in sight." Anya stated simply. "I have ten sun potions ready to go and another ten will be ready before you all leave as well as a couple of smoking potions. We have more poorly made stakes than we can use, but they'll still work even if they give whoever uses them splinters. And all the swords axes and so on have been sharpened and polished and are ready to go for whoever wants them."

"The girls and I managed to gather a good number of bandages and things so we should have enough for hopefully any outcome, but we are going out for more later." Tara spoke up from her chair next to Willow's and directly across from Faith, who she avoided looking at for the whole duration of the meeting.

"Good. Thanks to Willow and her handy disillusionment spell we were able to stake out Caleb's lair undetected. There wasn't a lot that I was able to see that we don't already know about through other means, but there was something odd. I felt a pull, it's hard to explain but it did feel like something was calling to me. Kinda like how I can feel Faith and how I felt Kendra only a slightly different vibe, I couldn't tell you what it was though." Remembering this strange feeling had Buffy shuddering.

"Was it a bad feeling Buffy?" Giles asked curiously.

"No. Not really. It didn't feel good or bad just... present. Very present. Like something powerful was saying 'here I am'. As I said it is really hard to explain well, maybe Faith can when we go back. If I can sense it she probably could too." She said glancing at the other Slayer.

"Well I couldn't get very far into that place when we separated, but they hadn't changed up much since the last time I was there. There were a lot more baddies there this time though. I couldn't get an exact count, but fair to say there'll be more than enough to go around." Spike said looking far too pleased at the prospect of a difficult fight.

Buffy then turned to Willow for the last report of the night's activities. She, Spike and Willow had not had much time to exchange tales of what they'd seen as the two of them had needed meet up with Faith's group again. So this was the first time she'd heard any of this. 

"I think I was able to get further in than either of you because I saw a lot more than either of you seemed to. There were many bringers there and even more Turok Han, but there were also a few demons I don't think any of you may have seen before because they don't exist in this dimension."

"Why would they have inter dimensional demons?" Dawn asked with an undercurrent of fear in her voice from remembering abruptly her last encounter with such demons. 

"I think the better question," Giles spoke "is how did they acquire inter dimensional demons?"

"I'm pretty sure we all know the why of it." Willow stated. "Of course they are looking to destroy us among others and the demons they had were suited to that. I don't know if they had a name, but they did have very thick naturally armored skin, lots of boney projections on the knees, elbows, and wrists, and they were also very tall and very heavy. I think everyone should carry swords or at least axes I highly doubt stakes and daggers will work well on them."

"Faith make sure the girls know at least basic sword technique. I think Kennedy has some experience with it but the others may not. We will have to be sure to take on those guys ourselves and leave the others to the girls." 

"Right Buffy, I'll make sure they know to slash with the pointy end and hold the other." Faith said sarcastically. "There is only so much anyone could do with a few hours to work with. We'd be better off giving crossbows to the girls with no experience than swords at least then there is less chance of them hurting themselves. We'd only have to worry about friendly fire."

"I for one veto crossbows for those with bad aim. We don't need that kind of back up." Xander said only halfway joking.

"Arrows wouldn't get very far anyway" Willow reassured him. "I'd suggest shot guns if we had any and could train the girls to use them efficiently that fast. Best bet is to just keep them away from the heavy demons. Anyway, I also know how they have been recruiting inter dimensional demons to their cause."

"How?" Giles asked and at the same time Buffy exclaimed "how is it that you saw so much more than Spike and I? Those disillusionment spells of yours were good, but not good enough to get as close as you seem to have."

"That's because the spell was meant for the caster to use on themselves. I had to tweak it a lot to get it to work for you and Spike and then it was only partial. I was very nearly invisible and so I was able to get closer without notice especially when we split up. Do you guys remember the Trezor Ble?"

"I don't think any of us could forget them!" Anya exclaimed and everyone agreed with her.

"Well the reason they were here in the first place was to find a lost treasure. I told you guys before that they consider children to be the ultimate treasure. Well I know where the lost kid is. Somehow Caleb and the First got their hands on a deep blue child."

"What is that? and what does it have to do with these new demons?" Dawn asked angrily not wanting to be forced to even think of the red blue demons anymore.

"Trezor Ble have deep blue children only once every few centuries. These children never turn red as they age like the others, so they are blue all their lives which are longer than normal Trezor Ble because they are highly magic. In fact it would be almost fair to say that they are pure magic like unicorns. Because of this a fully trained deep blue is capable of feats of magic even I can't do. And just as Dawns blood can open a portal to one particular Hell dimension theirs can open portals too. Only the destination is limitless though each portal can be opened only once by one person and goes only one way." At the expressions on the other's face which all showed some level of awe and amazement at Willows level of knowledge since returning, she decided to continue. "One of my mentors was a deep blue female over 600 years old I learned a lot from her.

"The child they have is very young not even old enough for a true name, four in human years five at the most. She won't be able to help us rescue her but then again she won't be able to hinder us from helping her either."

"You want to rescue the demon child?" Spike asked incredulously.

"Yes. She was further in the lair than everything else so she'll be harder to get to, but if we leave her there we are letting them keep a very valuable magical being who can willingly or not help them recruit more demons from Hell dimensions. Besides that she is only a child and they are mistreating her, she is malnourished among other things. I'll do it alone if I have too."

"And what happens after?" Anya asked "Are you expecting me to play mommy?"

Xander sighed at this knowing that if Anya was in this so was he and felt nowhere near ready for fatherhood. "I will keep her until I can figure out a way to get her home." Willow stated firmly "I owe it to the clan that helped me to do what I can for her. So you don't need to have a heart attack Xander."

Anya looked disappointed but Xander had calmed significantly. Tara looked concerned and was preparing to say something to Willow before she was unintentionally cut off by Buffy. "So we have another objective to add to the list: kill Caleb, find the source of that strange feeling I had, keep the juniors away from the armored freaks and free the girl."

"All while causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible." Spike said gleefully "Got it."

"I'll take Caleb, Faith you can help Willow, Xander and Spike will stay with me and the girls until the two of you come back from your rescue mission. Hopefully by the I'll have killed Caleb, have found whatever I'm looking for and we can retreat. If anyone sees anything that looks as if it belongs to me grab it. Go time is three hours after sunset. Let's try taking them by surprise for once and wait until they've started to relax the guard."

The meeting broke quickly then with everyone getting ready last minute preparations before resting up. Go time indeed.


	19. Willow and Sidonie Interlude part 3a

The Red Witch

Willow and Sidonie Interlude part 3a   
(the first part of what has become a very long chapter) unbeta'd

Tara was upset after the meeting and she wasn't sure what exactly to do about it. She had assumed apparently erroneously that Willow simply needed some time to get over losing Sidonie and that they would be friends while she did, but that they would also be working on their relationship during that time. She had assumed that Willow still loved her, was still in love with her and that they would soon get back together that they would get back to where they'd been before the magic addiction. Of course she knew that things could never be exactly as they had been of course. Far too much had happened to allow that. However, she'd thought that they'd be able to find a new happy medium. That Tara herself who'd changed so much in the time since she'd first left Willow all those months ago and this new Willow would figure out a way to be happy together.

But given the evidence of Willow's attraction to Faith along with the subtle and not so subtle flirting along with Willow's lack of interest in her, even with the problem of no real time to get together and talk because of everything, she didn't think so anymore. This hurt more than she could say because she'd mourned Willow and she'd loved her so hard. When she left it had been only to force Willow to get some help because she'd already forgiven Willow for erasing her memories. Though that had been the singular act that had nearly destroyed Tara's ability to trust her then lover. All she had wanted was to get her girl back, and now she needed to talk to Willow to find out once and for all if that was ever likely to happen. It hurt too much to be left in limbo, to watch as the red head flirted with someone else and touched someone else while she wanted that person to be her. 

Before the witch left tonight Tara would be sure to corner her and bring this up. If there was no future between the two of them then Tara needed to move on. Already she had been trapped in her mourning and grief too long, it is time to move forward.

TRWTRWTRW

Willow had been in training six months give or take a week and finally she was beginning to feel some control come her way. In the last week she'd managed a state of complete awareness in her rages. It didn't come until some point after she'd gotten all worked up and she couldn't calm herself, but she found that she could channel her energy into other actions to an extent. She was able to actually put into practice some of the moves and techniques she was being taught while being in rage including redirection to sex, which allowed her to prevent numerous severe wounds that both she and Sidonie would have taken otherwise. She also found that the length of time that she was under was shortened after she gained awareness. According to Sidonie the goal of Berserker Training 101 was to be able to stop the rage in its tracks without falling under, to be able to recognize the triggers that led to her rage state, and to be able to call upon it and use it as a tool at will while remaining in complete control. So while Willow was nowhere near to completion of that goal, she'd taken many strides forward. So on this particular day she was feeling pretty good and ready to make some more strides in her new abilities.

Her normal schedule consisted of sunrise meditation under "her" tree (the same one Sidonie found her crying under so many months ago). Followed by a light breakfast with her two housemates usually just fruit, some type of bread and eggs or porridge, then she would join Sidonie in the white room for more lessons and sparring. After that she'd have a late lunch and some free time to study Ysandre's magic books and ask questions of the two women about what she read if they were available. 

Despite not being allowed to leave and return home because of mystical restraints and the nature of portals, Willow had settled into her new life. Sure she had many things to deal with such as worrying about her friends and her relationships with them, Tara and Dawn especially and adjusting to the new traits and abilities that came with her demonic status. In particular Willow found that her appetite had increased nearly threefold. Once she was fully healed she found herself eating nearly twice what she normally did and still being hungry. According to Sidonie this was a result of increased metabolism due to her newfound self healing, strength and anger issues. Still Willow was a bit disturbed by her Slayer sized meals despite the fact that it wasn't affecting her physique at all if only because of all the physical activity she did daily. 

Willow had finally been given her own room, which made her feel a lot better about being where she was. Everyone needed a private space to be alone in from time to time. And this extra space away from Sidonie along with the boundaries Willow had put on their relationship in the form of no sex outside of training allowed her to rationalize away the feelings of unfaithfulness she had. That alone helped Willow to develop a closer friendship with the brunette than she might have otherwise and she now considered Sidonie among her friends. Closer even than she had been with Buffy even before Willow brought her back. Seeing that the two of them routinely spent nearly nine hours of each day in each other's company So of course now that she was settled, happy and satisfied with her progress something had to come along and destroy what peace she'd found within herself.

So what she found this morning after she'd finished meditating and went into the dining room for breakfast was that Sidonie wasn't there. This was highly unusual, because though they seldom meditated together both she and Sidonie always ate breakfast with Ysandre and sometimes the three of them managed dinner together as well. And they always ate at the same time each day, no one was ever late. But today it seemed she and Ysandre would be eating alone and the older woman wore a solemn expression when Willow entered the room. This increased Willow's sense of foreboding.

"Young one come, sit" Ysandre ordered politely when Willow paused in the doorway as if she was rethinking being there. Reluctantly Willow took the indicated seat directly across from Ysandre and made a show of looking around for their absent housemate. 

"Where is Sidonie?" 

She noticed only now the change in their normal fare. There was still bread and fruit but in addition to the eggs there were thick strips of fried meat and a grainy porridge which sat next to an amber bottle that looked like honey. While Willow was pleased with the offerings because she was never completely satisfied by the light morning meals they usually had, this was another sign that something was not right.

"My daughter will not be joining us today, child. You and I have much to discuss so we may not see her until dinner if not later."

"What do we need to discuss?"

"When my daughter brought you here, I agreed to allow her to aid you and I agreed to add my own aid to hers. To Sidonie your life is important, far beyond her customary tendency to wish to nurse any broken creature. The lengths she was willing to go to in order to save you lend proof to that. She risked her life in saving yours, young Willow."

"I know and I and deeply grateful to you both for everything. I'll repay your kindness as best I can." Willow said sitting back in her chair wanting nothing more than to run away from the hard look in Ysandre's eye that promised nothing good.

Suddenly the older woman's demeanor softened and the normal warmth was back in her eye mixed with compassion. "Soon enough you will be leaving here, though I would never force you to go. In fact, I do believe I would enjoy having you remain here to bring more life into my home. But what I know of you already tells me that you won't decide to stay once you know the truth, that you won't forsake your friends and home. Still there are many things you must learn before you can safely go and I'm not just talking about control over your new nature. Eat now and then we'll talk, some things are best on a full belly."

TRWTRWTRW

After a breakfast that Willow could barely stomach despite it's deliciouness. Willow went with Ysandre into the older woman's sanctuary, a room in the corner of the domicile which had three glass walls. This room looked out onto a large gorgeous garden that Ysandre maintained herself with sporadic help from Sidonie and Willow when they weren't busy training. In it were many of varieties of fruits and vegetables, all of which they'd eaten at various times, along with many sweet bloom flowers many different rock and sand paths and pools of crystal clear water. Ysandre's room, which Willow hesitated to call an office was painted on the one wall and ceiling to mimic the garden in a mosaic of color the only monochrome area in this room being the floor which held a thick and fluffy sand colored carpet.

The two women settled themselves on comfy chairs posed so the sitter may look out through the glass and once they had both settled into place Ysandre began.

"I am capable of seeing into a person's life both their past and future, though the future is always murky and unlcear as it should be. Soon after you came here before you woke I took a look at your past and saw bits of your future as well. I told my daughter nothing more than what she needed to know in order to heal you, including your name, but it is time you knew what I saw and learned some of the consequences of your actions.

"You have never had a proper teacher to tell you the whys and whens of magic rather than just the what. And so as may be expected there are many things about your craft that you have never learned including the major rule that all users must follow, which is that magic always comes at a price. One can very rarely tell what the price may be or when it will be seen, but there is always one. Let's start with your re-ensouling of the vampire Angelus. As I understand it was your first major spell correct?"

Willow nodded from her curled up position on the chair wondering what kind of damage she could have done with a spell that gave a friend back to himself.... Even if she had done it just before he'd been sent to a hell dimension where he'd spent centuries being tortured by nightmare creatures as well as his own thoughts.... Willow cringed down into her chair further.

"As I am sure you know a vampire is a human that has been killed by a demon only to have their body taken over by another demon while their soul is free to go on in the karmic cycle. Whether that means it is reused as in reincarnation or sent on to another state of being is unclear, perhaps both occur at different times to the same soul. In any case the gypsies cursed Angelus worse than even they knew because not only have they forced Angelus into remembering and grieving for the sins his demonic nature did, but they permanently severed his soul's ties to the karmic circle. He cannot "move on" as a normal soul would and with your spell, he has been permanently tied to his demonic nature. Once his body dies he will cease to be completely as will his inner demon. But perhaps he would prefer this to having his soul float aimlessly, forever out of place?"

"I don't know, maybe" Willow whispered quietly.

"Action and consequence. But Willow no decent teacher would have ever let you perform that spell at the level you were. Not because you weren't capable, you've proven you were, but because at a beginner's level is where one is most vulnerable and bad habits set in that can destroy you and your potential. From then on that was the case with you, little study into the deeper why of magic, when magic was best to use or not use, and major spells whenever there was a crisis which from what I understand was often. This damaged you. It probably wasn't noticeable at first but by the time you ended up here I'm sure you saw it."

Willow mumbled faintly her eyes closed and her body shaking slightly. The addiction to magic, the need to use it all the time for everything. "Tara never had this problem."

"Your Tara never had the power that made this a great concern for her. The greater your potential, your ability, the more likely it is be a impending problem especially when you use it as you have. Besides that your Tara was grounded, yes? Her mother was a minor witch wasn't she? No doubt she taught her daughter some of the guiding principles that kept Tara from your mistakes."

"Tara tried to teach me some, but she could never show me enough..."

"Of the more showy, high power magicks you mean? You didn't listen to her as much as you should have because her magic was quieter and less intense?"

With shame Willow nodded slowly remembering all the times she left Tara to pursue the study of magic in her own way. "No one else noticed until it was a big problem, no one besides Tara."

"Well she the one most connected to you, your other friends did not make you as great a priority as she did. But it is a good thing you are here now as I plan to teach you all you should have learned and more including why some magic is best left alone. But first let us continue with the greatest spell you've ever done the resurrection spell. You defied the laws of life and death and brought your friend back from the grave."

"Out of heaven."

"Doing this opened a rift in your reality that allowed the First Evil room to have more direct influence on your world." Willow sat up in her seat and stared at Ysandre with a shocked expression. "We will discuss this in greater detail later as this evil will destroy your world unless it is stopped, but there is nothing you can do about it now there is too much you need to learn first."

Ysandre went on to talk about how there was often a give and take with magic that the more intense spells required that you give more to cast them and that often this included part of yourself.

"When you cast the resurrection spell I don't know if you realized that part of the cost of it was a life for a life as well as a blackening of your own existence. The return of someone close to you in exchange for the loss of someone close to you to maintain the karmic balance. Had you not been killed in the street that night this would have been your future..."

Ysandre reached over to Willow and placed a cool hand upon her cheek. Instantly Willow was drawn into a sequence of scenes that she found herself moving through as if they were her own memories freshly branded into her mind.

'Working her way through a sort of magical rehab in her too big bedroom in the Summer's home. Helping Buffy fight the machinations of the three most pathetic villains she'd ever encountered and refreshing her computer hacking skills. Reuniting with Tara after a series of Scooby adventures and shy near misses at Sunnydale U. Losing Tara... to a poorly aimed bullet after having finally reconnected with her fully. A precipitous fall into darkness so deep she could not see the light.... Being washed in every gloomy emotion that has ever crossed her conscious or sub conscious amplified to a thousand. Threatening Dawn's life and meaning it... Flaying Warren alive and having her thirst for vengeance magnified rather than quenched. Attacking her best friends in order to get to Jonathan and Andrew. Taking down Buffy.. And Giles. Deciding to end everything rather than just herself after seeing her pain reflected in every living being the world over, like billions of well polished mirrors. Nearly succeeding in her grief fuelled plot only to be thwarted at the last second by the most unlikely of all people... Xander.'

Willow came back to herself after what felt like years falling down a white rabbit's hole. The last thing she'd seen was herself attempting to recover from the depths she'd allowed herself to settle into. A short period of rehabilitation at an English coven that did not at all lessen her sense of grief, her profound sense of loss. Without being told she knew that the earth shattering heartbreak never went away and she was doomed to live it for the rest of her life. Panting like a heavy smoker after an extended run she was barely able to raise her head to meet Ysandre's eyes, even with the aid of the woman's hand still on her cheek.

"The cost of your spell was the life of your lover, the shattering of your soul bond. That cost is still in effect, but because you died before she could her life will be spared so long as you never try to reconnect with her romantically. Should you attempt to reforge the bond between the two of you she will die and this time nothing will stop it."

"You've seen this?"

"Yes. That and more. I am not sure if you are even aware of just how much you've lost with the severing of this bond. What you had was a unification between two parties so deep that eventually an empathetic link would have formed as a natural extension of it. Such a bond would have brought you strength beyond measure as well as love and joy. So in order to ensure that you fully understand the loss and are wary of ever making the same mistake again I will give you memories of a life I've seen for you in which your bond was fully realized." 

With that short lead in, Ysandre once again brought her hand to Willow's cheek this time forcing the witch to stare into her eyes and see...

Willow found herself closing her eyes involuntarily and when she opened them again she was in the middle of what looked like the backyard of a cabin near the mountains. The backyard was bordered on three sides by a hardwood forest and the ground and trees were covered in a thick layer of pristine white snow.

"Hey Aunt Buffy" a young voice called with a giggle. Turning Willow spotted a young blond haired boy with the brightest green eyes and most mischievous grin on his face. Both he and the blonde Slayer were warmly dressed and the little rascal, who could not have been more than six, had hidden behind his back a snowball that he threw into his Aunt's face as soon as she turned towards him. Laughing delightedly and clapping his hands in joy at his own good aim he only decided to run after Buffy shook the snow away.

"Alexander Giles Rosenberg McClay if it's a war you want, a war is what you'll get!" She cried out still spitting snow and charged after the youngster whose legs were just too short for him to get away. No doubt, thought Willow, Buffy had let that snowball hit her as with her reflexes she could have easily avoided it. But still laughingly Buffy quickly made up her own snowball which barely missed the boy who dove to the side, as if he had Slayer reflexes, just before he would have been hit. By the time he was back on his feet another snowball managed to catch him in the middle of his back. Willow watched as for the next hour the two tossed snowballs back and forth before Buffy suddenly dropped into the snow claiming exhaustion. The little urchin merely jumped upon his Aunt and began burying her in snow until an older less blonde Tara called them both in to warm up by the fire and drink hot chocolate. Both of them ran into the house at that laughing all the way. None of the three spotted Willow though she stood in plain view and Willow found herself unable to enter the cabin behind them. She was forced to watch through the window as an older heavily pregnant version of herself drew pictures by the fire with what looked like a two year old red haired girl before both were joined by Buffy, little Alex and Tara carrying mugs of marshmallow filled chocolaty goodness.

~~~~~~~~~~

Rose colored paint decorated the walls of the hospital room that was the new scene. In the hospital bed being comforted by Tara, Older Willow struggled to breathe properly while feeling her way through a contraction.

"Why did I agree to this Tara? Why were you crazy enough to knock me up?!"

"Well you were the one who wanted one more baby and I did warn you that you'd have to carry this one yourself. You'd think you would have learned a lesson from the last two times we were in this position." A crooked smile took the heat out of the tease as the red head panted and groaned.

"No more kids Tara. This is it! If I survive I'll be happy with our family at the size it is... ummm."

"Did you pick a name yet Willow?" Tara asked thinking to distract her wife from the pain. "Callie and Alex keep asking me what their brother's name will be."

"I have a few ideas, but I want to see him first. Names are important and his should match him."

"I always loved Calliope. You chose such a beautiful name for our girl."

"Yes, well beautiful voice for my daughter whose voice I was afraid I'd never get to hear. I was never more scared than when she came out all blue and quiet. But it was a better fit than even I expected she may just be a musical genius!"

A soft grin lit both their faces at the thoughts of their precious girl. "Hopefully this one will not feel the need to make as dramatic an entrance as his sister."

The doctor came in then and checked on Willow's progress and declared her nearly ready for the main event. Two hours or so later the two women were greeting their newest son, who even wrinkled, red, and bald resembled Tara so much.

"Hello Zane Jacob Rosenberg I'm your mama and I'm so excited to see you buddy." Tara smiled brightly watching her exhausted wife interact so sweetly with their newborn.

"Hi Z, I'm mommy and I think your mama chose the perfect name for you. You are the best birthday gift ever." The baby yawned widely before falling asleep against Willow. And Tara smiled down at the red head who looked ready to follow him into sleep. "Better get your rest now sweetie before the others try to come in here and meet this little guy."

Tears fell from the eyes of the young Willow in the corner as she watched this once again from the outside looking in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Willow found herself in the family room of the house she'd grown up in which was decorated for Halloween. Three young children all dressed as bunnies sat on the couch watching scary movies with an older pirate dressed Xander. The tallest child was a twelve year old girl with rich brown hair and Xander's laughing eyes in Anya's face. The child in the middle was little Alex now aged ten his blonde hair turning more honey brown and next to him the former two year old red haired girl now six and munching on a huge carrot with the greens still attached.

"Are we all ready for trick or treating?" Willow's own voice called out from behind her. Turning she faced that older version of herself dressed as a mermaid princess holding the hand of a small yellow fishboy, who walked forward and through her. "Xander why would you dress them as bunnies?! Anya is going to kill you!" Older Willow exclaimed and then groaned.

"Alexander Harris you are on the couch tonight mister!" The small Anya clone said in an eerily accurate Anya impersonation that all of them even Xander laughed at. 

"This is why my little Angie is enough for me! I feel like I have two Anyas after me sometimes no need to risk a third one!"

~~~~~~~~~

The next scene had Willow in the middle of a large hall where a bunch of people all dressed in their best formals danced or stood together and chatted. In the front of the room Older Willow and Tara danced slowly together though the song playing was fast. The banner they danced under said 'Congratulations Mr and Mrs Alexander Rosenberg'. Dancing near Tara and Willow all smiles and fast moves was the now man sized Alex and an older version of the brown eyed Angie Harris in an elegant white dress.

"I couldn't have chosen better for her honey. I always hoped those two would end up together." Behind Willow, Xander danced with his wife both beaming with pride and joy. 

"He is a much better choice that that motorcycle riding vampire hellion, even if Alex did knock her up out of wedlock." Anya said with a shudder. "So glad she grew out of that phase!" This while caressing the shock of white hair at her husband's left temple earned during his daughter's rebellious phase.

"What, she's pregnant?! Why didn't anyone tell me!" Xander cried out loud enough for the whole hall to hear. "I'll kill him!" He said turning to go after his namesake.

"Well they're married now Xander, you're kind of too late for that. Besides our future grandson will need his father alive and his grandfather out of jail." She caught his arm preventing him from storming off.

"You know it's a boy already? How far along is she?" He asked more calmly noting the attention that now focused on him and Anya. 

"Well she is only three months along, but I have a grandmother's intuition!"

In another section of the room the former six year old carrot eating bunny girl now all grown up danced with a handsome green haired, cocoa skinned boy whose green eyes matched her own though they looked nothing alike otherwise. A move that had the boy putting his hands on the butt of the girl caught the attention of the girl's younger brother. This blue eyed, blonde haired male version of Tara who wasn't yet a man though he was man sized pulled the his sister's dance partner away with a warning look. 

"I've got my eye on you, buddy, keep your hands above the waist!"

"Zane!" The girl said in exasperation "go back to your own date!"

"You've got a good brother Calliope." The green haired boy spoke up."I like him. Good job kid. Hands above the waist, got it."

Zane walked away after his sister rolled her eyes and returned to his own date, a handsome black haired boy whose only flaw was far too much hair gel. The party continued long into the night with everyone having a good time and no one noticing Willow at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last scene she saw took place in what looked liked Buffy's home during Christmas. She stood in the living room surrounded by all the Scoobies including Faith and all their family. It seemed neither Faith nor Buffy had a significant other, probably due to the difficulty of maintaining such a relationship with their night jobs and the required secrecy and stresses. Dawn was there with a brown haired man and two middle school aged kids. Tara sat on the couch next to Dawn and her youngest son with a brown eyed, brown haired six month girl on her lap (so much for Anya's grandmother's instincts) with a space next to her for Older Willow who was handing out presents.

Young Willow watched as the presents were passed around her and no one paid her the least bit of attention. Xander was taking pictures of his first grandchild opening or attempting to open a soft shelled book gifted by Auntie Dawn. Anya was opening her own gift from her daughter and exclaiming over how the book titled "Advances in Capitalism over the Last Ten Years with Emphasis on Retail Marketing" was the best book ever put out in the last five years. Zane and Calliope were too busy fighting over one of last year's gifts to hear Auntie Anya wax poetic about American finance. And everyone else was joining in the Christmas paper fight instigated by six month old Alyson, who really had no idea what she started as she watched her daddy catch paper thrown by her mommy with his teeth. 

Willow was left to watch all this and mourn the future that she couldn't help but want with every fiber of her being even knowing that it was no longer hers to have. And it wasn't until now that she understood that Ysandre was showing her the lost future because otherwise would have never have fully understood the magnitude of what she was now being denied due to her own actions. Right now it seemed impossible to imagine any kind of happy future without Tara, Alex, Calliope and Zane even little Alyson. But she truly had no other choice because if she clung to this future she would kill Tara which would destroy her. Still she would be mourning this loss for a very long time.

TRWTRWTRW


	20. Willow and Sidonie Interlude part 3b

The Red Witch

Willow and Sidonie Interlude part 3b

(the second part of what has become a veeeeeeeeeeeery long chapter and the last interlude)  
For Claudia (finally your birthday present is finished nearly 1 year later!)

TRWTRWTRW

Back in the peaceful garden room Willow jerked away from Ysandre's touch tears streaming down her face. 

When Willow left Ysandre she walked without knowing where she was going or even that she was moving at all so overwhelmed she was with all the information that had been laid upon her. Lunch and dinner had past while she was in that room but she was insensate to the needs of her body while she mourned. When she finally came back to her senses, she found herself in front of Sidonie's door not knowing how long she'd stood there. The door opened after her knock to reveal the brunette undressed for bed gazing concernedly at her young friend. Willow made a decision right at that moment that she might grow to regret, but her need to feel lovable and not a complete fuck up overruled everything else. So the red head threw herself into Sidonie and when the woman lowered her head to enquire about Willow's state of being Willow kissed her hard with furious need. This initiated the first intimate session between them not preceded by a fight or necessitated by Willow's loss of control over her demonic nature. For the first time between them it wasn't just sex but love making, a request and a promise to be as present for a being in deep emotional pain as possible.

And Willow held on to Sidonie all through the night and much of the next week in which she lay numb to anything but the brunette's touch. She knew that she was using her friend and that she would never be able to keep this woman just as she'd never be able to have Tara again, and that the whole situation was unhealthy and screwed up, but she couldn't bring herself to care right then. So she kept to Sidonie's bed. 

After a week of staying in Sidonie's bed the other woman refused to allow Willow to touch her anymore. This was only to expected because not only had Willow refused any food or drink she also refused to clean herself up or take care of herself in any way. This led to extreme concern on the part of Ysandre and Sidonie but also a high level of annoyance on Sidonie's part as it was her personal space that Willow was inhabiting. So Sidonie kicked Willow out of her room rather roughly hoping this would trigger Willow's demonic instincts if not her human ones and get her out of the funk she was in. Of course for one as stubborn as the red haired witch this did not work and merely ended with Willow laying about in her own room for another half month irresponsive to everything even Sidonie.

By this time both Ysandre and Sidonie had decided that something had to be done as not only was Willow's behavior hurting her, but once her demonic side reestablished itself it would do so without any input from the witch. Willow's control over her demonic side was minimal and that little control was likely lost over the course of her grieving, she would break soon and hurt someone. Whether it was them or their not so distant neighbors did not matter so much as the need to prevent unnecessary chaos. So Sidonie bit the bullet so to speak and dragged Willow not so gently out of the bed and into the shower one day. She scrubbed down the other woman forcefully in ice cold water with an astringent soap against the red head's passive protests. Then she shoved food at the other woman while slapping her and cursing her. This finally got her the reaction she had been aiming for when Willow jumped up from her seat and attacked Sidonie with the full intent to kill her.

Sidonie gave almost as good as she got recognizing that Willow was not in control of herself then and they would have to fight until the woman had cooled down. But she was not entirely prepared for the force with which Willow came at her. For someone who'd spent the better part of a month laying in bed and not eating the red head was more vicious and potent than anything to be expected. It didn't take long for first blood to be drawn and once it had the scent goaded the witch on further. Her eyes were pure rage and lacked any sense of self or logic so Sidonie was not going to be able to force the other woman to submit without deadly force as she'd hoped. 

When Sidonie had a moment to steady herself after temporarily pinning Willow to the much dented wall she gazed into Willow's eyes hoping that some part of the witch was there to reason with. However, she wasn't able to find anything there but the darkness and the will for wanton destruction that marked her kind when in full rage. Willow had surrendered to the beast without a fight and seemed to not care very much how this interaction would come to an end. Having been stunned by her observation and upset by the thought of what she'd have to do in order to contain Willow, Sidonie was surprised when for the third time in the last five minutes she found herself ramming into a wall damaging both herself and the wall opposite the one where she began.

Forcing herself to recover quickly and willing adrenaline to cover the pain of the fight Sidonie mentally shook off the kid gloves. From there the fight became more one sided than anything that had ever took place before. Sidonie had the impetus of not only defending her own life from mortal danger but also Ysandre's combined with the instinctual need to force the other woman to submit. A need which became ten times stronger when she unleashed her own beast. Willow was very strong but Sidonie had the advantage of years of training and full acceptance of her nature, so once Sidonie decided to end the fight it took only a minute to do so.

The fight such as it was remained contained to Willow's room, which meant that the room was destroyed and would be unusable until extensive repairs and redecorating occurred. Things came to an end only after Sidonie had broken one of Willow's collar bones and a forearm as well as a few ribs on both sides distracting the other woman enough that Sidonie was able to subdue her and force her to calm.

"All this time that you have been here Willow and not once have you asked the questions that mattered. You have allowed yourself to coast by and ignore the hard details but you cannot do that anymore you no longer have the choice." Sidonie snarled at the prone woman under her. "I understand your loss, and I do not ask that you shove aside your pain or forget it. I ask that you do not forget to live. We don't have very long before you must return to your home and I will not be able to aid you anymore once you do. You are going to have to learn to work through your grief so that you can gain all the skills and knowledge you can while you're here."

"How am I supposed to live with this! She is my soul mate, my one and only, and now I have to accept that I have to let her go forever one way or another and never be happy again. Could you live with something like that hanging over you? You should have let me die!" Willow spit at the brunette blood flying from her mouth and staining her teeth as it was forced up with the pain of her punctured lung.

"Ysandre showed you one path and one path alone. True, you were on that path before and were it not for your actions that future would have been yours. But that was not the only future you have available merely the one you desired most. Do you truly think that everyone has only one person that they are destined for? If that person dies or should the two never meet does that mean the other partner is alone and unhappy for all their life?" Sidonie paused and glanced down locking eyes with Willow wanting to ensure the woman was paying attention. 

"There are those who would call us soul mates or something close to that, Willow. Part of me is inside of you and forever will be, surely you feel it calling back to me constantly. As like calls to like. It is part of the reason you are so attracted to me, why you feel so connected to me, and why our friendship developed so naturally and easily. It goes only one way now, though I feel a great deal of both affection and attraction for you, but if you healed me as I did you, I would carry part of you as well. I highly doubt that there is only one person you could ever be truly happy with. When you're ready you'll just have to find a different way to be happy, someone else to find that happiness with."

"Ysandre said I'd never have that again that Tara was my only path to true happiness."

"I highly doubt that is exactly what she said, but I'll tell you this. She can only see part of the future and even then some things are not written in stone. If you allow yourself to think that only Tara cold be what you need then you'll never allow yourself to be happy with anyone else."

Willow was not ready to listen to that or even imagine being so intimately involved with someone not Tara. So she closed her eyes and made no response to Sidonie's words, feeling more of her injuries and the pain that came with her accelerated healing now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

"In any case," Sidonie said with a sigh finally moving off Willow and taking a seat next to her instead. "I truly hope we are not doomed to only one person because you and I are going to live a very long time."

Willow peered up at her and made a questioning noise. "Normal Mercs live hard and die relatively young just because of our nature. The oldest one I've ever heard of was 53 winters and I have never met any over 38. However, I myself am 73 winters..." Here she was cut off by Willow's gasp of surprise.

"I know I look rather young, barely older than you and I'm going to look that way for awhile because part of me is Ysandre, just as part of you is me. Trezor Ble don't usually live any longer than a normal human, but the Deep Blue like Ysandre are highly magic and they normally live much longer because of that. Ysandre is 613 now and the oldest one I have heard about lived to be 864 winters. You and I will outlive a lot of lovers, friends and family. So unless you are into necrophilia and choose one of the undead demons as a mate, you will spend a long time mourning loved ones and being alone if you don't let yourself seek happiness in whatever form it comes. Even before I met you the fact that you were an active user of magic with your own internal magic energies would have extended your life span some. That is before you began dabbling in the corruptive high power darker magics."

Willow was stunned to hear this and for the longest time she simply stared at Sidonie before she could bring herself to say anything. "How do you know that I'm going to age like you?" She asked the words shaking as they left her. She now had a new fear to think about as vampires were never her thing and she never truly understood Buffy's attraction to them, especially after Angel turned and killed Jenny Calendar (despite the fact that he was a friend).

"I can not be fully sure until you have lived for at least a decade or more without change. However, with all else that you picked up from me during the healing it is more likely than not that you have this as well. But there are benefits to go along with the obvious consequences, you will always look young for your age." The last part a teasing grin in an attempt to calm the red head who looked to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"Eight hundred and sixty four..." Was the last thing the red head got out before she fell unconscious from both the emotional shock and the pain her injuries both minor and major.

TRWTRWTRW

As time passed Willow very slowly came to terms with her new reality. To be fair Ysandre had dumped a lot on her that day and her talk with Sidonie after was not nearly as comforting as the brunette might have hoped. It was harder for her to wrap her head around things because of the scenes she saw of a family she wanted ever since she was a little girl. Having been benignly neglected by her parents all her life the thing she'd always longed for was a family where she was loved without condition and felt as if she truly belonged. Being a Scooby was great having built a family with them made her feel so warm, but watching herself with her own children and her wife was another level entirely and then to be told she couldn't have that...

Healing up physically had taken two and a half days with a fourth tacked on by Sidonie to ensure she healed properly. Then it took Willow by herself two weeks to put her room back to rights given Ysandre's demands of perfection and Willow's need to learn how to make certain repairs before attempting them. In that time Ysandre made no attempts to resume her talk with Willow judging that the younger woman needed a little more time to settle first. In the next two months Sidonie forced Willow back into training making the witch train harder and longer each day than she had before if only to keep her too tired to make any drastic moves. Ysandre may not have thought of the full range of responses that the information she'd dropped on Willow could cause, but Sidonie having been in a similar position herself once was all too aware and remained vigilant. True it was important that the witch understood the results of her actions but it was also necessary that the woman had a sense of purpose and a reason to live, which Ysandre had not gotten far along enough in her talk to give. By the time Sidonie had seen Willow again the witch was too much into her shocked grief to listen to anything Sidonie had to tell her. So when she noticed Willow's lack of caution in their patrols around the neighborhood and Willow picking fights with groups of demons that she encountered even if they were not misbehaving Sidonie knew she had to act. 

She cornered the witch on the tail end of their patrol route one night a mile out from Ysandre's house after another incident where Willow put herself in danger needlessly.

"What is your issue Witch?" Sidonie growled at her letting the full force of her anger show. "Did I waste my energy and self healing you? I thought you might be worth something to me. But I see now that you are just pathetic. I should fulfill your death wish now and find another way to waste my time." With that Sidonie knocked Willow to her ass and began stalking off. "I don't want you around if you will amount to nothing. I will not waste more of myself on you."

Sidonie walked off leaving the witch behind on the ground without looking back once. And the red head merely sat there feeling as sad and pathetic as she looked. She did not move even when Sidonie completely left her sight or when the rain fell in the deepest part of the night. She sat there feeling sorry for herself until she sunrise was scant minutes away and she was found by a Trezor Ble patrol. The patrol was made up of young males all newly blooded and hot headed each disappointed with their lack of any action in their evening. All six males were all too excited to vent their frustration and excess energies on the woman they knew only as a young Merc who was known to cause trouble.

Willow allowed the first blows offering no resistance even when one of those heavy strikes broke her arm. She lay there unresponsive and might have let them end her if the males annoyed by her passivity hadn't tried another method of getting a rise out of her. 

When she felt the lead male straddle her and begin ripping her shirt she lost it completely. All her feelings of inadequacy and pity were instantly channeled into rage and she went into berserker mode. Only this time she had full control over herself from the start. Willow tore into the six males breaking one limb on each and ripping into them so hard that by the end they all lay unconscious in the light of the sun. She stopped short of killing them only for the sake of Ysandre's relationship with the tribe they were from. Afterwards she walked towards her home of the past almost ten months trying to hold onto her rage for as long as possible in order to avoid feeling the pain of her new wounds. She was halfway home before the rage ended and for the rest of her walk she forced herself to think about why she continued to walk when it would be easier to allow herself to fall.

She finally decided on her reason when she saw the house come into view Ysandre had mentioned a threat to her friends before, but what was driving her now was the need to prove herself to Sidonie. The similarity of the most recent attack to the one that brought her into contact with the brunette in the first place reminded her that Sidonie risked her life for hers. She could not repay the woman by being unworthy of that sacrifice. So Willow decided that if nothing else she would work to show Sidonie that she had not wasted her time and energy on her. She would spend what time she had left here learning and growing stronger and when she went home she would correct what errors she could. She owed it to her mentor not to waste the life she was given.

Satisfied with her reasoning she entered the house expecting to have to find Sidonie and apologize for her actions, so she was surprised to find herself knocked out of the house before she could enter properly. Willow landed flat on her back some way from the door and she looked up to find Sidonie with a look of indifference on her face. Willow stood and approached the woman quickly working up an apology speech in her mind, but before she could give it she was knocked down yet again. When Willow looked up again Sidonie had a leather wrapped dagger in hand and she came at Willow with the intent to use it written upon her face.

Willow got to her feet and moved as fast as she could to put space between the two of them. She opened her mouth to attempt to talk it out with Sidonie and was cut on her chest for her trouble. Willow moved back away from the knife wielding brunette and clutched her chest where a deep laceration now rested. With her blood pouring between her fingers Willow did something that she had not been able to do before and forced herself into the rage that called up her berserker mode. As before she managed to maintain control over herself from the start, though this time was harder, and attacked using her strength as she was taught. None of that was enough however to even begin to defend herself against Sidonie who seemed intent on killing her. So when she found herself knocked to the ground yet again with Sidonie nearly upon her Willow used the last trick she had up her sleeve. Willow's magic would not work against Sidonie because the other woman was far more skilled in that area than Willow herself, so all she had left was the transformation which she had never done successfully before. It required one to be desperate and truly afraid in order to force the change and now that Willow had decided she wanted to live she was just desperate enough. 

Willow had no idea what she transformed into, but when her vision shifted becoming sharper and her point of view and center of gravity moved closer to the earth she knew she'd finally done it. When she moved to attack she was stopped by the shocked look that had replaced the mechanical indifference on Sidonie's face and by Ysandre's presence in the doorway. 

"Well done child" Ysandre called to her. "Come now and eat and let Sidonie tend to you."

Willow hesitated, glancing over at Sidonie to assess her mood before going anywhere near her. To her surprise the brunette was smiling at her with a look of pride plastered on her face the knife no longer in sight. "Well done Red." She said brightly her attitude and voice at odds with her actions of just minutes ago. 

Willow was understandably nervous, but at a firm gesture from Ysandre she cautiously limped toward the doorway and consequently closer to Sidonie. When she just outside touching distance of the brunette, shifting awkwardly on her four feet, she stopped. Sidonie leaned down a bit and stroked her face gently before nodding reassuringly at her. "For now Red we're good. Try me again with your pity party though and we will have problems understand?"

When Willow nodded her acceptance Sidonie dropped her hand and stood back up fully. "Now come because it is almost time for training and you aren't getting out of it today, Red." She said before turning and entering the house.

Willow was curious about the new nickname Sidonie had given her, which had only been used by one other person before. But when her gaze dropped to her feet er... paws as she moved to follow her mentor she was greeted with the sight of auburn fur streaked and striped with fiery red and deeper red highlights. Shrugging her shoulders (which felt totally different from when she stood on two legs) Willow moved into the house without further hesitation.

TRWTRWTRW

Give any problem enough time and it will resolve itself one way or another. Eventually Willow was able to move beyond thinking about what she lost nearly every second of every day and focus more on what she was supposed to be learning. By the end of her first year in Ysandre's home she'd made real strides in learning control over her more bestial nature. Sidonie also took the time to teach her more of how to take advantage of her new body with its increased strength and speed as well as faster reflexes. She was also taught new meditations and methods for centering herself as well as perfecting her transformation without the emotional impetus. This last was usually only available to older Mercs who were on their last leg (figuratively) and had to reach down deep inside in order to defend themselves or those they cared about. It was based on desperation really. One had to be really desperate, or really scared, to go beyond the limits of berserker stamina and strength and become some thing more.

She had non-physical lessons with Ysandre. Though she was reluctant to be near the Deep Blue at first because of what happened the last time they spoke, eventually she came to enjoy their lessons if only because of the subject at first though she came to love her teacher as well. Ysandre taught her new ways of doing magic and new ways of using what she already knew of magic. From time to time they also had philosophical discussions on a number of topics that Willow also enjoyed. So as time went by and the sting of what she learned lessened she began to appreciate her time with Ysandre and Sidonie both more and more.

Her time was spent preparing for the day she would have to return to Sunnydale and challenge the evil she'd allowed to come through with Buffy's resurrection in order to restore balance to Earth. Once Ysandre managed to tell her all she knew of this evil and the affect its presence had in her friend's lives she dedicated herself to being strong enough to fight against it and to correct some of the mistakes she'd made before. One of her major concerns was that she became strong enough to control herself so that she was no longer in danger of becoming a threat to those she loved and everyone else on Earth too as she had been in that other life.

As the weeks turned into months Willow was finally able to accept that she could no longer have Tara and she was able to let her go in theory. Once she returned to Sunnydale and saw Tara in person she would be able to see how well she had actually been able to do. Her relationship with Sidonie deepened over this time as well. They moved from a close friendship to something more, though Willow never forgot Ysandre's warning about leaving once the optimal timing for such a portal occurred. So once she realized how deep their relationship had become she tried guarding her heart, preventing herself from falling completely in love with the brunette and she assumed the other woman did the same. The change they went through though was so gradual that Willow had no idea when their casual intimacies became something more intensely passionate, but she let herself enjoy this short time she'd be allowed with her new lover. However, as time went on and she spent so much of each day with Sidonie training and patrolling as she once had with Buffy, that she eventually forgot that she was supposed to maintain an emotional distance from the other woman.

Three years and five months to the day Willow arrived in Ysandre's home she had another life changing meeting with her host.

This time Ysandre waited until after breakfast and invited Willow to take a walk with her in the garden and maybe tend a couple of plants that were struggling in the limited rainfall that they were all coping with recently. Willow agreed eagerly, expecting another long discussion on magic or perhaps a philosophical discussion on the nature of life and living among other things. Willow had come to immensely enjoy her time with Ysandre as the woman had become for her the mother she never properly had. She was also excited because this invitation had not been extended to Sidonie and so as much as she loved the brunette she would not have to share Ysandre's attentions. She once tried putting Joyce into the position of substitute mom, but that never worked out for her, not really despite Joyce's kindness. But with Ysandre she had what she always longed for as well as hope that she could forge a copy of this relationship, even if only a weak one, with her own mother once she got back. After all now that she was older her needs were different and maybe her mother would be willing to try to meet them now. 

So after breakfast the two wandered in the garden among the more delicate flowering shrubs watering and pruning as needed in companionable silence until Ysandre decided to speak.

"The event we have been anticipating will take place in two weeks time, child."

"What event mother?"

"The optimal conditions that will allow me to open a portal that can send you home alive, as I promised when you first arrived."

"Oh..." Willow hadn't realized she just how much she considered this place home and how much she wanted to stay and build her life here until just this moment when she was faced with leaving in a non-abstract sense.

"I would never force you to leave child, but the next set of conditions necessary for such a portal will not occur again for many seasons. If you choose to wait or not go your friends will be forced to face the coming dangers alone. You must decide whether or not you can live with that. Neither Sidonie nor I will think poorly of you should you decide to stay. I for one quite enjoy your presence here and I know Sidonie does as well." Ysandre said a slight chuckle in her voice at the end.

"But you should also know that I will not think badly of you for leaving either. Though that will no doubt hurt you and Sidonie both deeply. There is no decision in this case which will allow you to avoid pain my child, I am sorry for that." 

Willow nodded stiffly words having left her for once. She returned to her task with tears in her eyes unable to do anything else at the moment. Could she stay and leave Buffy and the others to face death and another apocalypse without her, to face her mistake while she kept her distance. Or should she leave Sidonie and Ysandre to help her friends? Women whom she'd grown to love deeply each in different ways. Should she leave she would forever miss out on all that she could learn and experience by living here with them. Already she'd learned so much more about magic and fighting and about herself really than she had in the six years or so since she'd become friends with the Slayer.

In the end though it was not even a question of what to do. As much as her decision was about to hurt not only herself but the woman she loved, for her there was really no other choice. She'd decided long before when she learned in detail about the danger coming after Sunnydale once more and she could never live with herself or look at herself in the mirror ever again if she didn't face up to her mistakes or let other people suffer for them. In the end that would destroy her even more than leaving Sidonie would, she would cease to be Willow at all. So once again she was faced with breaking ties to a lover permanently for this was going to be as if she was killing Sidonie in her heart because the rule was once she left there was no coming back. And She already knew Sidonie would not and could not come with her as the other woman had her own obligations and her own rules to follow.

TRWTRWTRW

Telling Sidonie was a heart wrenching process. There was no actual need for Willow to tell Sidonie anything beyond the fact that the portal was opening within days. Sidonie knew just as Willow did what the final outcome would be. So that night consisted of Sidonie pulling away from her at times and at others begging Willow without words to change her mind. Willow felt like a yo-yo as she never knew from one moment to the next whether to expect another fantastic body-rocking orgasm or if she would freeze her tits off with the ice Sidonie put out. It got to the point where Willow escaped to her own room in order to avoid her moody lover, though her bed was now colder and more lonely than ever before since she'd grown used to sleeping next to Sidonie every night once they began dating.

By the end of that night however Willow had been awoken by her sobbing lover and the two of them had the wettest sex Willow had ever experienced. Both were covered in tears among other things when all was said and done and they greeted the sun exhausted from it all and just slept through until lunch.

Ysandre offered to allow Willow to take several of her cherished magical tomes to aid Willow in the upcoming fight. Willow accepted that offer and in addition cut back on her training so that she could transcribe copies of any other spells or passages that seemed relevant and Sidonie helped her with this. Two nights before her planned departure Willow was all packed up and was spending her last hours just being with the two women either walking in the garden or relaxing in other ways. She knew that she could not ask Sidonie to leave with her any more than Sidonie could ask the same of her. This being because of the vow the woman made to Ysandre when she agreed to take her in. A promise to be someone's heir and apprentice tied that person to their master very strongly and carried heavy consequences for broken vows on both ends. A one way relocation would count as a violation on Sidonie's part.

That night after she and Sidonie left dinner they had another conversation about Willow leaving which was interspersed with talk of Tara. Sidonie was afraid that Willow would leave and return to Tara which would not only result in the blonde witch's death but also another break down on Willow's part. This would not end well for the red head or her duty to prevent the newest apocalypse. Willow did her best to calm her lover's fears but she knew that the biggest part of them was jealousy and there was only so much she could do about that. After a vigorous session of lovemaking their conversation took a turn that Willow did not expect.

"If you stayed Willow we could mate and I would give you as many children as you wished. They would be gorgeous, our babies." Sidonie murmured from her position enclosed within Willow's arms while Willow stroked through her long hair.

"Really, we could do that?" Willow asked surprised.

"You have seen this for yourself in the visions Ysandre gave you. Why is this so surprising now that I suggest it?"

"I thought that Willow and Tara used donors. Humans still require both males and females for procreation, at least I thought they did."

Sidonie shrugged at this, amused. "I suppose most would, but those capable of the magic have other options available. There is a spell and a potion both have their own pros and cons, but you and I are both powerful enough to make either work in the first few tries."

"How exactly does that work? Are we even compatible in that way? I mean we are sort of different species." Willow sat up excitedly, learning about new forms of magic always did bring out the eager student in her.

"You forget that you are no longer entirely human Red. You are more compatible with me now than with any human you might encounter including Tara. And it would work in the normal fashion, we'd have to wait until I was at peak fertility then you would either take the potion or do the spell and impregnate me. It's rather straight forward as far as that goes."

Willow allowed herself to think of what their child might look like and she found herself excited and happy at that idea. An ear to ear grin followed her vision of a green eyed brunette daughter who babbled even before she could speak recognizable words. A life that she thought she might never have, placed before once again. But then she remembered and her face fell.

Sidonie who had been studying her face with increasing hope lay back when she saw Willow's change of expression. "You won't stay." She said her voice without emotion or inflection.

"I... " Willow started but was cut off by Sidonie's finger on her lips.

"I knew, but I would not have forgiven myself if I hadn't tried at least once. I'll see to it you get the book with the spell and potion in it. You may find a mate that you'll want that with one day and I have already memorized both." She sighed and brought Willow close to her until their lips were scant inches apart her eyes, showed only a pained acceptance. "Make love to me Red, I want to feel you."

TRWTRWTRW

A few minutes before her departure time Willow stood with Ysandre and Sidonie in the garden her two bags waiting near her feet. Willow and Sidonie had a more lengthy private farewell hours before and Ysandre had shared goodbyes with her already, so all that was left was the creation of the portal and its endpoint. Willow having thought hard about this already had decided to return to her parents' home, which was more than likely unoccupied and familiar enough to her that getting the portal aimed there would not be so hard. She didn't want to land in the middle of the Scoobies right away and it was best if no one saw her return. Even with the famed selective memory of Sunnydale residents something like that would be hard to cover.

Ysandre prepped the spell to open the portal and then stepped back to allow Willow to open and guide it.

"One last piece of advice child," Ysandre called as the silent vortex opened before them and Willow prepared to enter. "When you find the blue jewel keep it. Your life will be all the richer for it and others will benefit greatly as well."

Willow has an expression of confusion on her face but she nodded when it seemed as Ysandre was not going to speak further to clarify her words. She smiled at them both and studied their faces one last time then turned back to the portal. The last thing she heard as she stepped through was Sidonie's voice.

"Do try not to die Red, I love you."

TRWTRWTRW

Tara had no idea what she'd expected to get out of her conversation with Willow, but it certainly wasn't what she got. She had been informed in no uncertain terms that she and Willow would never again be anything more than friends. This left a jagged wound in her heart that threatened to undo her. After so much mourning and longing for Willow she would be left forever separate from her soul mate. Somehow knowing Willow was alive and well now hurt much worse than it had believing she was dead at least then she had been slowly healing and there was some form of closure. Willow finally did explain why they could not be, which was a relief to hear in a way though Willow's tale cut her deeply.

Tara had started to believe that Willow just was not attracted to her anymore, that the other witch no longer valued their past. But to hear that just the opposite was true made her feel warmed beyond words as she had been beginning to feel stupid and lost at having mourned her former lover's loss so hard only for her to return mostly whole and healthy without the least regard for Tara herself. But now, knowing what she now knew changed everything including her perspective. It hurt more than she could have even imagined to hear about the beautiful life that Willow's mistakes and her own (she had to acknowledge she played a small part in what happened even if Willow did not) had cost them. And it hurt just as much if not more, to hear of the life that had awaited Willow had the other witch not died that night, to know that the red head would have spent that lifetime forever suffering her loss without really ever moving on. Between the two of the they re-affirmed the decision to remain only friends because Willow truly loved her and it was much better that Tara lived. Not just because they both wanted to avoid her death, but because the loss of their joined future in addition to Tara's presence would absolutely destroy Willow. The remnants of their bond insured that they would always remain close no matter who else they became involved with or how distant they ended up physically.

With that knowledge Tara would find it easier to watch Willow slowly move on, despite the fact that the witch now had the pain of another lost lover to get over before she could truly be with anyone else.


	21. Chapter 18

The Red Witch

Chapter 18

 

For Claudia, happy belated birthday and I'd still love you even if you were bald ;).

 

Battles were ugly affairs that were always, always unpredictable. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy" is often quoted in times like these because it is so true. Once you're actually in the thick of things those who are inflexible and unable to adapt the plan at a second's notice are doomed to failure. Luckily that wasn't one of Buffy's failings, she was good at being flexible and adaptable but some things could simply not be planned for and therefore when they happen they can destroy all chances of pulling a clean win together. In the end, that fight in the vineyard, for all the planning and adapting was simply one more fuck up that barely came up as a win... If anyone could call what happened that night a win. Much later that night Buffy sat under the large tree in her backyard with scenes from earlier flashing before her eyes and things she hadn't been able to concentrate on at the moment in question now flooding her brain making any kind of rest impossible. She was trying and failing to figure out where it all went wrong, but so much happened so fast that there was no chance of pinpointing any one point especially since she couldn't keep track of all that went on.

They went in as Buffy wanted a few hours after nightfall, the group of Buffy, Willow, Xander and Spike with Faith and her girls waiting in the trees surrounding the old vineyard. Everyone was armed with their favorite weapons the most noticeable of which being Xander's large ax and Buffy's very shiny sword. The four choose the stealth approach to begin but that proved to be a lost cause when their first steps into the worn out processing building sent them headlong into a group of bringers. That was a short battle that was easily finished in their favor but it happened at the expense of their quiet entrance. A short run down a hall and the first flight of stairs brought them to the first group of inter-dimensional nasties. 

TRWTRWTRW

Willow crept down the damp stone lined hall to the area where she had first seen the girl. it was not a room but an extension off the hall that dead ended and contained more stained and aged wine barrels. The last time she saw the girl, before she was forced to leave her, the child had been chained by one thin ankle to the rear wall and covered in a torn and dirty overly large tunic that had once been white. Reaching that place now Willow saw a similar scene, the girl was still chained and she lay unconscious on a bare cot pale and bloody. There was a fresh cut on her upper right arm from which blood still trickled and getting close enough to touch the girl Willow could feel the heat of infection coming from her. A number of her older wounds were leaking pus which was only to be expected given the conditions the girl was forced to live in. On the floor near the cot was an untouched bowl of some kind of gruel and not too far from it a bucket for the girl to go potty in.

Willow's nose scrunched from the smell of sickness and foul conditions but she didn't allow that or her anger keep her from moving to help the girl as much as she could in the short time she had. There wasn't much she could do right now because she had left everyone else upstairs fighting. Spike was keeping to Xander's blindspot and so far everyone seemed ok in terms of holding their own, but there were so many more demons and bringers there than they could have ever expected even knowing about the inter-dimensional recruitment. Willow couldn't afford to linger. Gently she touched the child's face and pushed her magic into the girl with the purpose of finding and healing any wounds. It was an inelegant solution because she couldn't control where her magic went first or which wounds got cared for in what order, but it was faster and more thorough than just trying to heal each visible wound separately and maybe missing something. When Willow finished all the wounds had been closed and most of the bacteria causing infection forced out, but enough were left that the fever remained. Luckily Anya had cures for that and Tara could nurse her back to health. The most important thing was to get her to them.

A quick spell broke the chain allowing Willow to pick the girl up and carry her upstairs. She was so tiny that her weight barely slowed Willow at all. Upon re-emerging into the thick of battle Willow was dismayed to see that in the few minutes she'd been gone the tides turned against the Scoobies in a bad way. Spike had been separated from Xander in the fight and the one eyed pirate was tiredly swung his ax against several bringers while fighting the pain of a dagger buried deep in his thigh. Only four Potentials still stood as Amanda lay sprawled and unmoving close to one of the walls her position suggesting that she was dead. Buffy was tied up with Caleb and several Bringers and Faith was nowhere in sight.

Thinking quickly Willow rushed to Xander and with a quick flick of her hand knocked over his opponents. Using the distraction she quickly shoved the girl into his arms while stealing his ax.

"Take her to Anya and Tara quickly." She said speaking fast "I've got these guys."

Xander nodded secretly relieved at his dismissal because of the knife still in his leg which was cutting him more with each movement. Still he hobbled to the stairs while dodging enemies deciding to leave it in rather than risk severe blood loss by removing it this far from medical help. Luckily they had driven both his car and Giles' rental and parked not too far from the vineyard in anticipation of something like this. The way things were going though he'd need to send Giles and a couple of girls back to get everyone out before they were all dead.

Willow made short work of Xander's bringers before engaging others while attempting to move toward the Potentials who were not fairing so well, but getting caught up in the numerous demons that came after her. Luckily she caught sight of Faith rushing to the girls' aid.

TRWTRWTRW

The Potentials had been warned to keep away from the larger demons so of course as soon as they entered at Buffy's signal they were ambushed by three of the six that were there. Claudia was the one to come up with an effective strategy but only after Amanda had been killed by the one she, Rona, and Vi were fighting. Faith faced up against one the brutes by herself and managed to take it down by herself though not in time to help her girls. Claudia remembered the compact lightning spell Tara had given her only after she saw Amanda's neck broken by a backhanded blow that sent her body flying into a wall. 

Before then she and Kennedy had barely been holding their own and all the Scoobies including Buffy had been otherwise occupied and unable to come for them. Just like that night in the graveyard with Faith and the others, the sight of one of her friends going down sparked an all encompassing fury in her mind. Instinctively she searched her pockets for the lighter, not that it would have done her any good, but instead her hands felt the parchment packet that each potential had been given to stick in their pockets "just in case". Ripping it out she opened it and blew the contents into the beast's face then shouted 'ignis'. Unfortunately she had been too close to the cloud of dust when it ignited and lost her eyebrows and eyelashes as well as patches of hair from the top of her head. This was not such a big deal in the scheme of things but it made fighting a little awkward with the constant need to blink and the raw feeling of her scalp and face. The huge demon had his head caught entirely in the dust cloud and was therefore easy for Kennedy to kill as it stood stock still probably from shock.

Vi having caught Claudia's trick with the powder copied it on her demon but more carefully and therefore avoided any burns, while Rona then finished it off with two quick sword strokes. By that time Faith had finished her own without the aid of magic and angered by the sight of Amanda's broken body ordered the girls to stick to the bringers and normal sized demons as she charged after the last giant demon left standing as Buffy had taken down one earlier and Spike working with Xander had gotten the other.

The girls closed ranks and fought in a circular formation with their backs to each other and for a while they each held their own, which was good because Willow had slipped off to find the girl and Faith was following the call of whatever it was that Buffy had felt before. Buffy herself was occupied with Caleb who used the numerous demons to keep his fight against the Slayer uneven. Spike and Xander were on the complete opposite side of the room surrounded by Turok Han and bringers. 

Kennedy having gotten a little too confident made the mistake of breaking ranks which left Rona exposed to the errant blow of one of Kennedy's opponents. Luckily Rona was able to move fast enough that the blow merely grazed her arm leaving behind a bloody scratch. Kennedy however away from the protection of her fellow Slayerettes ended up with her left arm taken off at the elbow when four bringers ganged up on her at once with the assistance of a sword wielding demon. The other girls pushed into the fight and surrounded Kennedy while she lay bleeding onto the floor and did their best to protect her but had caught the attention of even more demons and were about to be overwhelmed. 

Faith came from out of nowhere though and using a large red and silver scythe cut down a good number of those demons with furious strokes. Giving the girls a bit of breathing room. Faith then handed the scythe to Rona and quickly pulled her belt from her waist then kneeled at Kennedy's side. She pulled the belt tight on the brunette's bleeding stump earning a pained cry then collected the girl's lower arm and stuffed it into Kennedy's shirt and tied the bottom of the shirt to hold it in place. Turning to Claudia she pointed towards the stairs.

"Xander is leaving with the little girl I want you and Kennedy to go with him and have him drop you at the hospital. CC stay with Kennedy until someone is sent to take your place. Tell them whatever you have to, that she's your girlfriend, sister, fiancée... whatever but stay with her after you've both been treated. You understand?"

Claudia nodded and helped Kennedy to her feet then pulled the still in shock brunette quickly toward the stairs that Xander had just reached. Turning back to her last two Potentials she ordered tersely that they watch her back and stay with her or she'd kill them herself.

TRWTRWTRW

Buffy and Spike were now fighting back to back. Buffy had been entirely occupied with her battle against Caleb from the moment she'd reached this lower level. There were occasional breaks in which Caleb ducked out and left her to face hordes of his demon friends and at times he used those attacks from the others to distract her while he made his cheap shots. Caleb apparently was a dirty fighter. At the moment Buffy was facing only the random demons some of which were from Earth and some of whom were obviously no local. Her attention being wrapped in her own efforts meant that she wasn't much aware of how the others were doing. She had no time to breathe properly much less worry about the next Scooby, which was upsetting her.

So when Spike of all people joined her and helped to cut her some breathing space, she was finally able to play a bit of catch up. Spike told her of Xander and two of the potentials leaving, of Amanda's death, and Faith and Willow's completion of their goals in between punches, kicks and swings of his sword. Buffy had lost her own sword some time ago while facing Caleb and was currently using only hand to hand moves. With the brief break Spike gave her by killing the two demons in front of her she quickly scanned the room in an attempt to locate her missing psycho priest and take in how the others were faring. She was worried now more than ever about her team and was ready to call a retreat so that they could re-group. She'd rather have Caleb dead here now, but they had the girl and they had the shiny new weapon, so they wouldn't be leaving empty handed which was good given what they lost in the battle so far.

She noted that a good number of the demons that they had been facing were dead and taking up floor space and yet despite that more than enough remained to give them trouble and make an exit strategy difficult to implement. Faith seemed to be holding her own though against her own demons with two of her girls watching her back. And a quick turn towards the red head showed her that Willow was like herself facing a horde of uglies and that the psycho priest had apparently decided to change targets because he was making his way to Willow. Suddenly Buffy saw herself standing just behind Willow and a very bad feeling shot through her. Buffy had the sudden urge to get to Willow because something was about to go down. She wasn't sure if the red head spotted Caleb's approach and she knew the First was up to no good. But before she could so much as shout a warning to her friend she was forced to dodge a blow aimed at her head and was once again completely occupied by the baddies in front of her.

TRWTRWTRW

Willow had been fighting for what felt like hours. Her training gave her more stamina than she'd ever had before, but there were just so many. Put one down and two more popped up. She had no idea where the First got them all. The length of the battle had her beginning to make errors. She had trained to keep her focus on a wide area, but that was becoming harder to do. Two of the Potentials she'd come with had either died or been badly injured because they lost focus, and she hadn't been able to get close enough or stop long enough to check on the fallen. She had a small break when she dispatched her latest enemy, a little breather before she sensed movement behind her to the left.

Buffy stood there three feet from her, but Buffy was also about twenty five feet away from her on the other side of the room fighting. So Willow was pretty sure that this Buffy was actually the First and that it was merely trying to distract her from something. Willow began to turn and rejoin the battle not wanting to waste time with a non-corporeal being, but then it changed. 

Before her eyes the First became a tall red haired woman that Willow knew well even if not as well as she'd have liked. The shock of seeing this person, the last person she has ever expected to see had her frozen in place. She could not even think of moving as her brain was stuck on the improbability of Sheila Rosenberg being at this particular vineyard.

"Mommy." A soft exclamation that came from her unaware. Once her brain at last began to sluggishly work again she remembered something very important, two things in fact. One, that was the First in front of her because just moments ago it had been Buffy. Two, the First could only take on the forms of those who'd died or had been killed. Willow could sense movement behind her, but she could not break the spell of physical shock she was under, she couldn't even begin to try.

"Hello daughter. What a waste you've made of yourself, so much potential just gone, not that I ever had the highest hope for you."

There was a push against her body and Willow looked down to see the bloody tip of Buffy's sword sticking out of her belly. She could see the sword and she knew that it meant she'd just been stabbed and was probably mortally wounded, but there was a disconnect from her body to her brain because she still couldn't move and she couldn't feel anything. Raising her eyes back to her mother she finally noticed that the sounds of the battle around her had faded, she was in a tunnel. She could hear, see and comprehend only her mother's presence.

"Do you know your father and I never wanted children. You were an accident and I kept you only because your father hoped for a son to continue his line. Imagine his disappointment to find a daughter instead of a son. You've continued to disappoint ever since and that was why we could never get far enough away from you. You have never made any good choices and your entire lifestyle is abhorrent."

The sword inside her was turned, twisted, and then pulled out. However, she was still incapable of feeling though her body collapsed until she was on her knees blood pooling fast beneath her. Still she was unable to understand that the blood covering her fingers was hers and she should be in a great deal of pain, though a part of her mind knew that it was true.

Her mother transformed into her father. Ira Rosenberg tall and proud with his thick salt and pepper hair a look of great disappointment written upon his face and in his green eyes. "Good-bye Willow. I don't think we'll be meeting again."

Willow's knees slipped from under her and as she hit the floor sideways she finally began to feel all the pain that had been delayed plus some. She could hear the sounds of continued battle that had been missing before. She was also now able to see Caleb. He walked from behind her and stood next to his master a look of satisfaction upon his face holding the sword that had been buried in her a moment ago.

"Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." He said just before a flash of silver and red moved in a vertical line from his groin to the very top of his head. His look of satisfaction changed to one of confusion and startlement just before his body fell forward on either side of Willow in two equal pieces. His blood pooling with her own. Behind where he'd been stood Faith a red and silver scythe in her hands, which she tossed behind her without looking calling Buffy's name and apparently trusting her to catch it. Completely ignoring the First, Faith dropped to her knees at Willow's head blood soaking into her pants.

"Red, I need you to listen to me I need you to heal yourself right now."

Willow merely stared at the Slayer the light in her eyes dimming as she lay there making no attempt to move or even respond. Her increasing weakness being a small part of her lack of reaction with everything that just occurred.

TRWTRWTRW

"Come on Red, damn it don't do this to me. Don't just give up, I need you! Please, take my strength use it." Placing her hand in Willow's Faith continued. "Take what you need all that I have is yours, I am yours! Damn it Willow use me, heal yourself now. Please don't leave me!" 

Willow's eyes closed and Faith screamed. The sound of a desperately wounded animal, which no one had ever heard her make before ever especially not the two Potentials busy with their assigned task of guarding the Slayer's back. The sounds of battle paused for a moment before resuming more fiercely than before. At the same time Faith who'd started crying felt a gentle pressure on her hand before her world tipped to one side.

The Slayer was unaware of the fact that she was falling for no good reason until she'd stopped. She'd landed upon Willow her head on the witch's chest their hands still connected. She could feel a pull through her hand, as if something was being drawn from her faster and faster. From what she could see of her hand where it lay in Willow's there wasn't anything visibly moving from her to the red head, but she could feel it nonetheless. The faster whatever it was, was pulled from her the weaker she felt until she couldn't even keep her eyes open. Her thoughts became slower and her body was as limp as a wet noodle, but she was glad. She didn't think about herself, that Willow might drain her to death if she took too much from her. She was just grateful that Willow was taking the opportunity to heal, that the witch might still live and that part of her would be in Willow now just as part of Willow was in her.

TRWTRWTRW


	22. Chapter 19

The Red Witch

Chapter 19

 

Later Buffy was unsure of how they even managed to get out of the vineyard alive. Even with Caleb dead there were still so many demons to contend with. Buffy had been in a position to see the scythe coming her way when Faith called her name and the power that washed over her when she caught it gave her an instant invigorating boost that filled her sails. This helped her take down the demons in front of her as if she were reaping a field of thin stalked wheat. But the sight of Willow lying in a puddle of blood with Faith unmoving on top of her took that wind right back out of her. Rona and Vi had done their best to protect the two and they held out long enough for Buffy and Spike to back them but they had all been in a bad position.

Luckily the Calvary arrived none too soon and Giles along with four Potentials joined the battle while Anya threw potions that had very interesting effects. One of which was her inventive smoking potion which gave them the cover they needed to retreat. Spike hoisted Faith while Buffy carried Willow and Rona and Vi put themselves at risk to grab Amanda's body. They got home to Buffy's and it was decided that they'd all stick together that night over crowed or no. The First was down many scores of foot soldiers, its dimensional portal opener, and one fanatically loyal lieutenant but Buffy had no doubts that it would rally from its loses.

Amanda, they buried in a poorly marked grave in the nearest cemetery, something Buffy vowed to fix as soon as they could once this mess was over for all the fallen. Faith was left in Buffy's bed once Tara determined that no hospital would be able to do anything for her as what she needed the most was real rest. Buffy got the story of what happened to Willow from Rona and Vi as soon as the two were in a position to speak. She had heard Faith's scream but had been unable to respond to it and it broke Buffy just a little more to learn what her best friend had lost. Parents were parents even if they were distant and not particularly helpful when they were around. The First tried to use Joyce against her but as much as it hurt, Buffy had come to terms with her mother's death. It was Willow's recent violent death that had happened only because of Buffy which had disturbed the Slayer so. Still Buffy knew Willow's pain. So when the red head, who'd proven to have recovered some from her grievous injury thanks to Faith, had withdrawn from everyone Buffy did not begrudge her that. She simply followed the witch to her place in the backyard and sat guard over her as much as possible with her other duties. The red head was really worrying everyone however as she refused to eat or even let anyone check over her injuries. Not to mention her current form was scaring some of the Potentials which was why Buffy did not try to force Willow into the house even as the hours of Willow lying under the oak tree became days.

TRWTRWTRW

When Faith woke up after the battle in the vineyard she was highly confused. She woke up in Buffy's room at the Summer's residence but had no idea how she'd gotten there. In fact after thinking about for a moment she was very surprised to not be dead, unless she was and this room was part of some hell dimension. She couldn't be sure. Light shone from behind the curtains to gently illuminate the room and Faith made an effort to get out of bed though she felt weak and her muscles limp like when she'd awoken from her coma years ago. She barely managed to sit up in the bed.

Buffy walked through the door then, a large bowl and cloth in her hands. She looked relieved to see that Faith was awake. Buffy moved into the room quickly and placed the bowl and cloth on the night stand then sat on the edge of the bed.

"Good morning Faith. How are you feeling?"

"Like crap. What the hell happened?"

"We won the fight and got the scythe from Caleb who is now deader than a door nail thanks to you. But it wasn't much of a victory we lost a lot in that battle, we were really outnumbered and we were really lucky to survive at all."

"Willow. Is Willow okay? Did she make it? Was she able to heal in time?!" Faith's thoughts were chasing themselves she was beginning to panic and was getting very worked up. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to see Willow and know that she was alright and the urge consumed her. Buffy's answer whatever it was would not satisfy her at all, she needed to see for herself either way. So she gathered herself and made movements to get herself out of bed despite her weakness, not noticing anything in her haste to find Willow. Not even noticing that she wore a pair of Buffy's most childlike pajamas, light blue with smiling penguins on them, something that would surely horrify her when she did finally take note after she'd calmed down. 

"Whoa, whoa calm down Faith relax. Willow is fine for the most part... I think. At least she's alive anyway. But you have been unconscious three days now and you are in no shape to go anywhere." Buffy spoke holding Faith down to the bed by her shoulders trying to get her to relax.

"You think?! You don't know?! I have to get to her she needs me."

"Wow, you really are in gaga for her. I didn't think..."

Faith struggled against Buffy to no avail. The other Slayer was healthier and therefore stronger than she was and her fight quickly left her. Her will power was not going to be enough to get her up and out of bed especially not with Buffy holding her down. Tears of frustration and impotent rage coursed down her cheeks and she couldn't even feel upset that someone else, Buffy of all people, was seeing her cry. She was far too upset by the thought that Willow was somewhere suffering and Buffy couldn't even tell her if the witch would be okay.

"Hey it's okay Faith really, please calm down." Buffy released Faith's shoulders and scooted further onto the bed so she could take Faith into her arms and stroke her hair. "You don't need to worry so much I'll take you to her myself after I've cleaned you up a little, changed your clothes I promise."

"No, take me now. I need to go now please."

"Have you even seen what you're wearing? Do you really want to go downstairs looking like that?"

Now Faith noticed the pajamas, but they didn't even faze her she was not going to let them other things were more important. "No, don't worry about it just take me to her."

Buffy was at a loss she had never seen the younger girl in a state like this before. She had even doubted before that Faith could feel for anyone the way she was so clearly demonstrating her feelings for the red head. It made her think of the blonde haired witch who was probably even at this moment with Willow.

"Alright, just let me clean your face a little." Buffy said dipping her cloth into the warm water in her bowl and gently wiping Faith's face before she could make any sort of protest. Buffy then left the cloth and bowl on the nightstand and lifted Faith into her arms. She carried her like one would carry a sick child and to Buffy the other Slayer weighed just about as much. She'd lost a lot of weight the past three days though Buffy's Slayer strength did help. She carefully carried Faith downstairs and out the back door ignoring everyone who saw them just as Faith did.

Faith was confused by the direction Buffy went in. She'd expected that Willow would be in Dawn's room or even Tara's if anything, instead they went into the rather large backyard toward a tree that was near the rear corner. Faith was shocked by what she saw there lying in the grass next to Tara. It was the largest cat she'd ever seen in life even bigger than the lions and tigers at the Boston zoo she was lucky to go to once as a child. It looked a lot like one of those jaguars she'd seen except for the size and coloration. Instead of being black or yellow with spots this cat was a deep auburn with streaks of different shades of red and brown all over except for its belly and throat which were a very pale sandy brown.

The eyes helped Faith realize who it was, eyes that were large and yet held a soft look in them, a green to match Willow's. Buffy put Faith down in the grass near the cat's head then went over to Tara and pulled her back a bit from the scene. The cat was lying down with its head on its paws staring at Faith unmoving. Faith put her hand on the cat's head and stroked it all around its ears, neck and face not the least bit worried about being bitten or clawed. Finally she spoke to it. 

"Hey Willow you had me worried for a minute. I was scared I'd have to watch you die and I don't think I could have handled that. Are you healed? Do you need more of my strength?" 

Faith wasn't sure if she expected the cat to speak or if it even could, but it didn't try. The cat raised its head to look Faith in the eye and then licked her cheek, putting its head back down it nuzzled her hands before moving so that it could lay its large head on her lap. Faith shrugged and began rubbing its head again. Tara and Buffy exchanged glances full of meaning neither Faith nor the cat saw. The cat was purring now softly and the two blondes were surprised to hear this. The cat had not before made any kind of response to anyone not even Tara. It hadn't moved or blinked or purred for anyone else in the last three days since Buffy followed it home. But now here it was interacting with Faith, a very telling action and both Buffy and Tara knew this though neither commented upon it.

"Faith" Tara spoke quietly to the brunette. "Can you ask Willow to change back please? I want to check her over make sure she's okay because Buffy said she took a sword to the belly, but she's been like this since that night."

"Why didn't you ask her earlier?" asked a confused Slayer who was pretty sure that there was something going on that she wasn't getting.

"I did, she wouldn't even twitch when I asked but she responded to you so I figured you'd have better luck." Tara's voice held notes of jealousy that she couldn't hide and everyone heard them clearly, both Buffy and Faith turned to look at her in surprise and concern.

Faith decided that she was better off not responding to that statement and turned back to Willow to prod her into changing back into a woman only to find that was unnecessary. In her lap was a naked red head who was looking pretty depressed. 

"I'm fine Tara" Willow spoke standing shakily in fragments from Faith's lap and lifting her arms turning slowly in a circle. "No wounds, I'm fine. I'm going home now. Gonna borrow some of your clothes Buffy."

Buffy nodded dumbly in agreement as she stared at the slightly pink patch of skin on Willow's belly matching another on her back, which was no doubt where the sword had gone through. It looked as if it'd heal without a mark once the pink went away. Faith made to get up insisting on accompanying Willow home even in her current condition. Buffy helped her to the living room then got Willow some clothing leaving the two witches alone. When she got back Willow dressed quickly without expression while Tara looked a little sad, the red head left them in the backyard and picked up Faith carrying her bridal style all the way back to her own house.

TRWTRWTRW

When Faith awoke once again the sun was shining brightly and she recognized the room that Willow had given her when she moved into the witch's home. She sat up and stretched feeling much better than she had yesterday though she didn't remember reaching this house yesterday when Willow carried her, so she must have fallen asleep along the way. Her stomach grumbled very angrily at her, it must have been a very long time since she'd eaten anything, but that was her last priority right now. She got up and quickly went through a bathroom routine before searching for Willow. She found the witch in bed still sleeping despite the light filling the room just like it did in her own. Faith lifted the covers on the bed and slipped in beside Willow before raising the witch's borrowed shirt and examining her back and abdomen with a gentle touch. Relived to find that even the pink was gone and her freckled skin was once again mostly flawless she leaned back her hand still on Willow's belly and saw that the witch was now awake and watching her intently.

"I'm sorry Red but I just had to check."

Willow didn't answer her, but put her hands underneath Faith's shirt resting them against skin. Then she leaned forward and kissed the Slayer softly and briefly. Faith felt her hunger disappear and another sensation arose, desire hot and consuming, but she didn't push because she knew the state the witch was in, and had seen what Willow saw in that vineyard. However, Willow didn't hesitate to take what she wanted, another kiss harder and longer, a nipping of Faith's lips. Following that an exploration of Faith's body searching and needy.

Faith's philosophy had always been want, take, have and she'd always been the aggressor the one to take and then discard, to force her partner to submit. But after looking in Willow's eyes and seeing her need she didn't even try to revert to that aggression, she took up the submissive role for the first time ever. She willingly allowed Willow to possess her, to take a physical comfort from her, and gave the witch the freedom to do what she wanted to her. The Slayer found in this moment that she was a rather vocal lover when the other person mattered something she had never known about herself before, as no one else got the reactions from her that Willow did. 

Perhaps she should have felt as if she were being used for her body, but whatever this was Willow never once made her feel that way. The witch was completely focused on Faith's pleasure to the exclusion of her own and if Faith were in any state to keep count the numbers would be totaly uneven. Willow's touches and skillful caresses drew reactions from Faith and made the Slayer feel outside her own skin as she lay barely able to do more than take everything in with the amount of sensory overload she was feeling. And when it was over they lay quietly entwined and Faith found that silent tears had been falling from her eyes which embarrassed her a bit. But it was the very first time she'd ever been made love to, the first time she ever felt that a lover cared for her and didn't just want to use her, that she was needed. The first time, aside from Xander's bumbling attempts, that anyone sought to actually please her or make a connection with her. Willow kissed her tears away and held her close and the two of them lay without speaking until three little words passed Faith's lips unbidden which scared the Slayer and made the witch pause until they wrapped themselves into each other again. And Willow held Faith tightly against herself pressing kisses all over her face.

"I love you."

TRWTRWTRW

When Faith woke again later that day she automatically reached for the spot in the bed that Willow had lain earlier only to find cool sheets. The Slayer sat up quickly suddenly worried in a way she'd never been before. The words she remembered uttering had surprised her as much as they'd surprised the witch and at this exact moment Faith was not sure exactly how she meant them. She knew that she cared for the witch as a person and as a friend but romantically... Sure she was attracted, that she had so much as admitted, but beyond that everything was simply too complicated to see clearly. She only hoped that her spontaneous admission hadn't chased the red head away. She dressed as fast as she could and left the room to find the red head.

Faith found Willow in the kitchen arranging dishes on a bed tray. The witch looked up as Faith entered and gave a welcoming smile before taking the plates and bowls off the tray and placing them on the table.

"Did I spoil your surprise?" Faith asked relieved that it looked as if the other woman hadn't planned to avoid her or ignore her now (as Faith once did to all her former bedmates).

"A little" Willow said with a warm smile. "I thought you might be hungry."

Faith sat to the table as her stomach growled it's opinion. "Yeah, I'm starving Red. This looks great..." She trailed off noticing that Willow was placing all the dishes before her and seemed to have made nothing for herself. "Aren't you eating? Or did eat already?"

" I won't be eating for a while, I've lost all appetite."

"You should eat Red, this can't be any good for you after that sword to the guts. You need food to heal properly."

"You're probably right, but I just can't even stomach the thought of food right now." 

Faith put down the fork she'd picked up and contemplated her plate for a moment before pushing the dish away decisively. "Oh no Slayer" Willow growled pushing the plate back in front of her. "I took a lot from you so you can't afford to go without eating. Thanks for the thought but no." As Faith made to protest, her stomach growled again loudly agreeing with Willow's position. So without saying a word Faith picked her forked up and tucked in appreciating the effort the other woman had put into making this meal for her. Though this didn't stop her from calling Willow a hypocrite in her mind, as her mouth was otherwise occupied. 

Willow picked up the now unnecessary tray and turned to move toward the sinks where dirty pots were stacked, but turned back briefly to look at the Slayer. "Thank you Faith" she said simply though layers of meaning lay in each word and Faith heard all of it clearly.

"Your welcome Red, anytime."


	23. Chapter 20

A/N: Sorry about the long break. This story will be completed.

 

The Red Witch

Chapter 20 

Willow had begun to feel guilty about her romp with Faith earlier. Together the two had decided to delay going back to Buffy's as Willow was emotionally exhausted and Faith was physically drained, and neither woman was eager to go back and deal with the battle's aftermath just yet. However this left Willow with too much downtime in which to think about recent events. Her thoughts started taking a downturn as she was washing up the breakfast dishes. Having had some time to digest everything that happened she was in a much better place to analyze events, but not enough so that she could see the positives. As much as she wished for more from her parents and resented their neglect, the news of their deaths hit her hard. Much harder than she could have ever expected. That combined with the still aching loss of her lover and mother figure was too overwhelming for someone still trying to re-adjust to Sunnnydale and the friends and ex-lover she'd left behind years before, though not by choice. 

That is what led to her impulsive decision to bed Faith and now she had to deal with the consequences. Namely the guilt of taking advantage of Faith when she was vulnerable and not physically 100% and also the guilt of a perceived unfaithfulness to Sidonie even though they had separated with the understanding that they wouldn't see each other again. Not to mention guilt due to Tara, who had not yet had a chance to let Willow go and would be hurt to learn of what happened between her and the Slayer.

Faith and Willow sat on the living room couch after breakfast. No one else was in the house as everyone was still at Buffy's. Faith lay with her head in Willow's lap and the red head rubbed the Slayer's overfull stomach while filling her in on what she knew of the current situation (Buffy kept her updated while she lay under the tree), though she wasn't quite sure how they ended up in the position they were in. Buffy was only mildly injured and so had already healed by now, Spike's introduction to the wrong end of a wooden chair leg was in the end non-lethal as it missed his heart and so he was fine after feeding on pig's blood. Xander's wounds had already been taken care of and of the surviving Slayerettes only Kennedy was still in bad shape.

Kennedy's surgery was successful and she'd eventually regain full use of her arm or close to, if she made it through the infection raging within her body. One that required IV antibiotics among other things and made the once vivacious and bold Potential appear weak and pale. Claudia as ordered has yet to leave her side and Faith got a real kick out of hearing that Claudia was pretending to be Kennedy's loving wife. She was less amused to find that Claudia had cast her as Kennedy's older sister and that she was expected to play that role when she and Willow went to the hospital later. Even knowing that she was playing the role only as long as it took for Willow to heal the brat and get her discharged didn't soothe Faith's grumpy glare. Still one had to admit that there was a strong resemblance between the two and having more "caring family members" would make signing Kennedy out easier as it would ease the minds of the Doctors and nurses even more along with Kennedy's soon to be miraculous full recovery.

Willow's main worry, aside from her guilt, was for the child that had been brought back from the vineyard. Willow had yet to see the girl since rescuing her and knowing that the child would not be able to communicate with any of the other Scoobies and would be highly unlikely to trust them given her previous circumstances, this would make handling her harder for them until Willow got there. But before any trips outside of the house took place Willow wanted to clear up a few things with Faith and hopefully avoid damaging whatever amity they managed to build in the time since her return.

"Faith there are some things I need to tell you about what has been going on since I healed you. What happened between us since I took your energy to heal myself. It starts with Sidonie..."

"Ok Red. So, who is Sidonie?" Faith asked.

"Sidonie... Sid was the one who rescued me from the demons that attacked me that night when Buffy and Dawn left. I thought she was you for a moment there until she looked at me. She fought the demons and killed them all, then burned the bodies before she took me away. The place she took me was... um, not on Earth exactly. It was a different dimension, a demonic dimension and Sid was able to get me there only because I was technically dead. She took me to Ysandre, who was like her mother, and together they made me whole again. Sid is a skilled healer and she taught me a lot of what she knew. I was really bad off and the only way they were able to heal me or to resuscitate me at all was because Sid shared her essence with me."

"Essence?"

"I guess you could say she shared her spirit with me and some of her physical being. Because Sidonie is by our definition a demon, I suppose you could say I am part demon now or at least that I have demonic attributes. If I wasn't the one who set the wards on the house I'd have to be invited in like Spike, but I am still mostly human and I am alive."

"Is that what you did to me? I've been drawn to you ever since the sweaty mattress incident and that isn't something that I can say I felt for you before. Of course you are much hotter now than you were before I went to prison." A sexy grin formed on the Slayer's face drawing a teasing and flirtatious response from the witch.

"Did prison teach you to appreciate the female form Faith? What else did you learn in the big house?"

"I was with a couple of girls before prison. I don't know if you'd noticed but I was kinda wild back then. Boys, girls, boy and girl at the same time, even a couple of way older guys who should have known better, but in prison I stayed to myself. I was trying to turn a new leaf, stay outta trouble you know. But we're off topic."

"Yes I did share a bit of myself with you, your Slayer healing wasn't going to kick in fast enough even after I healed you up as best I could. So you needed a little something more to help you hold on until it could fix you up. But you aren't part demon at least not anymore demon then you were before, Slayer powers and all. What's more, when I took your energy to heal myself I also took a bit of your essence as well, it was unavoidable but it doesn't seem to have caused permanent damage to either of us. One thing it did do was form a bond between us."

"Really? And how does that work?"

"Right after I was healed by Sid I was extremely attracted to her, beyond anything I'd felt before even for Tara. It's not something that I could explain properly but it was very intense. It died down after a while, became less intense, but it never went away. It was very confusing especially since I was still deeply in love with Tara then and I had not even looked at another girl or guy for that matter, since we got together. That and the fact that I felt so strongly for someone I've never even met before. Sid explained to me that it was a side effect of the method of healing she used on me and that so long as I lived, I would feel that need for her that attraction even if she died. It is a matter of her essence within me resonating (for lack of a better word) with her. Even now I feel it. Something different from me missing her and our relationship but just as strong."

"When I woke up I needed to see you so badly that I didn't care that Buffy had me in her fluffy bird pajamas. That definitely isn't me. This, what we're doing now isn't me..."

"It's because you knew that I was badly injured which caused you to feel that way, to need to be close to me. I feel it too, knowing that I took so much from you at one time. But we can stop this if it bothers you. The need will not be so overwhelming in a few days." This Willow said while her rubbing motions ceased and she made to get off the couch.

Faith stopped her by grabbing her hand and holding it close, refusing to allow the witch to move. "I didn't say that I didn't like it Red. Just that it isn't something I normally do. But I guess it really isn't as bad as any of the other weird shit we've seen. It's actually kinda nice really, I don't mind it so much."

"I'm sorry Faith" Willow spoke with a mournful tone, while settling back into the couch.

"Sorry for what Red?" Faith asked confused.

"I took advantage of you before. I knew the effects of the healing, I've gone through them myself. And I should not have touched you knowing that..."

"Hey, hey, hey" Faith said breaking into the beginning of Willow's ramble. "There was no taking advantage ok! If anything I'm the one at fault because I let it happen knowing that you were not yourself. I should not have done that, but I can't take it back now. I allowed it Red. I know that if I had said stop or no you would have, but I didn't."

"Still I should not have initiated sex, especially when you were still recovering from me draining you. You do not deserve me treating you like that and it won't happen again." 

Faith thought back to the hours she spent naked and tangled with the red head and she could not label them as mere sex. Faith was far from a virgin, but those hours were beyond anything she'd ever experienced before. No one had ever made love to her before, but she knew without being told that that was exactly what had happened. Willow had made love to her, had reached out to her of all people for comfort, and it made Faith angry to see the witch regretting any part of that experience.

"Red I going to say this only once so you listen and listen well. I enjoyed every single moment and I regret none of it. I would happily allow it to happen again anytime you want it and that is because it is my choice and not because of some weird bond thing. If you wanted me right now you'd only have to say the word. Of everyone here you are the only one I'd label as a friend and if you need me in that way or any other way, I am willing. Now, just so you know I am going to be free this evening so if you wanna come by..." Faith finished with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle which caused Willow to laugh.

"I'll keep that in mind." She said hesitating before speaking again cautiously. "You know that I'm nowhere near ready for a relationship right? I need time..."

Faith cut her off before she could finish. "I get that Red and I'm not asking for you to be my girlfriend. I just like the way you make me feel when we... I've never got off with another person before, I always had to finish myself. And I know you liked it too, so it doesn't have to be more than that." Faith said leaving out all the revelations about emotions and her needs that she'd had while lying under the witch.

"You want to be fuck buddies?" Willow asked saucily, sobering quickly once she heard Faith's response.

"NO!" Faith shouted involuntarily. The phrase rubbed her the wrong way immediately though she was not willing to say why out loud. Calling their relationship, or whatever it was, fuck buddies would cheapen the act and lessen the experience. "Friends. We're friends, close friends and there are some benefits to that."

"Friends with benefits?" Willow asked while carefully studying the Slayer and watching closely for her reaction not forgetting the three words from earlier which still lay between them unacknowledged. 

"Friends who are close." Faith stated decisively while looking at the witch not wanting Willow to object or come up with a another phrase.

Willow knew that this was a bad idea even before this conversation, but now she was certain. Faith wasn't asking for a true relationship... yet, but without a doubt that is what she wanted. Willow wasn't ready but she felt the attraction just as strongly as Faith now that it was no longer one sided due to recent events and she was lonely and hurting. For various reasons the other Scoobies were as of now unapproachable, especially Tara. She and the blonde were not yet at the point where they could discuss Willow missing Sidonie or her attraction to Faith. Then on top of that there was Willow's permanent loss of her parents, who despite not being as big a part of her life as they should have been, were still important to her. 

Perhaps one day after she, Buffy, and Xander all had time to hash out their issues then she could once again confide in them and take comfort from them. She and Tara had never been "just" friends so she had no idea how long it would take the two of them to reach that state.

But Faith, while having her own baggage from a past that included Willow, was without any barriers that Willow found problematic. So though it was a bad idea and not likely to end well Willow was inclined to allow them to be "close friends". Because part of what Willow was missing was not just sex but the feeling of being close to another person, of sharing a high level of intimacy, which allowed her to ground herself and her demonic nature. Faith would not and could not replace Sidonie but she could help Willow be less lonely, less hurt, and untethered to this plane.

"Okay." Willow said briefly with a nod at the pleased looking Slayer.


	24. Chapter 21

The Red Witch   
Chapter 21

A/N: Sorry still no Beta.

The dark-haired Slayer settled uneasily against the wall in Kennedy’s room as she and the others waited impatiently for a doctor or nurse to stop by and check on the brat. What had begun as a beautiful morning became somewhat darker as Willow and Faith made a stop at Sunnydale hospital to check on Kennedy instead of going straight to Buffy’s. Honestly Faith was glad to delay going to the place where Willow’s Ex was currently calling home. She was not afraid of the blonde witch, but found the thought of interacting with her after having had Willow was more than a bit awkward. Still, she had no love of hospitals and wanted to leave as soon as she could, her skin itched and her throat grew dry from just being in this hospital, her nerve would not allow her to stay long despite knowing what waited for them when they left.

Willow sat in the chair next to Kennedy’s bed exhausted from directing her magic to heal the wannabe Slayer and not having eaten or properly rested for days. She expended quite a bit of energy on the other girl, as Kennedy was worse than Buffy had led her to believe. The infection had been on the verge of killing Kennedy when they arrived as the brunette was allergic to the strongest antibiotics the hospital had and not responding well to the rest due to her body’s shock at the loss of her arm although it had been replaced. With the state of the infection, the arm’s chance of healing fully and without complications dropped every hour. 

Now however, the young woman sat up in bed looking ridiculously perky for someone who lay near death half an hour ago. She was conversing quietly with CC, the only other person in the room and her "wife" (for hospital purposes only, mind you). Neither woman would have chosen the other as a life partner, but CC at least was able to act well enough to give the impression that they were in love. Kennedy's acting skills had yet to be tested though they would be soon. The more mobile potential was sharing with the other everything that had happened and the state of things as they were now. That conversation ended just in time for Kennedy's very surprised nurse to rush in and begin fussing over her patient after a moment of shock. Kennedy put up with the tests without much complaint and was glad that the nurse could find nothing wrong with her stats. The nurse looked over Willow, before the witch shooed her away, after checking Kennedy. She recommended the witch eat and rest, but held back from asking if the witch was once again responsible for saving one of her patients.

When all was said and done the nurse paged Kennedy's doctor, who gave the Slayerette a good prognosis pending the outcome of a few blood tests. Her arm, he declared, was showing advanced signs of healing for all the damage caused. Despite all that though, Kennedy was stuck in the hospital for three more days as she was monitored for any signs of relapse or side effects from her miraculous healing.

Faith was grateful when that was done so that she and Willow could escape the hospital. The doctor and nurse both showed signs of concern for Willow, who truthfully came out of the trance she used to heal Kennedy looking worn down and on the verge of collapse. Only Faith’s fast talking kept the witch from being admitted as it didn’t seem that Willow was “with it” enough to keep track of what was happening. In fact, she followed Faith out of the hospital in a daze not reacting to anything even the Slayer’s instructions to the Potentials left behind. Of course, this was all the result of stress which was not helped by Willow refusing to eat or the fact that Willow hadn’t slept in the days Faith was unconscious, even though she slept with Faith last night.

Seeing a diner in front of them the Slayer dragged her companion inside and into a booth ordering hot soup and a sandwich for Willow and a burger for herself. “you look like shit Red.” Faith stated not pulling any punches.

”Fuck you.” Willow replied, having been jarred from her internal landscape enough to realize she was being addressed. Immediately after her statement however, Willow blushed and made a face of repulsion at her own crassness. Faith meanwhile was busy giggling like a ten-year-old school boy at Willow’s reply and her horrified face. She was so busy laughing that she missed her opening for the semi-witty reply of ‘maybe later’.

“I’m rubbing off on you, eh Red?” The Slayer finally managed to get out through her giggles.

“Maybe too much” Willow answered drolly. “Why are we here?” she asked finally noticing the diner setting, which was neither the hospital she last remembered being at or Buffy’s where they were supposed to be headed.

“You need to eat, to build back up your energy. And after we check in with Buffy I’m taking you straight back home so you can rest.” Came the sober reply, not a hint of amusement left on Faith’s face.

“Yes, mother” the redhead spoke with an accompanying eyeroll, though she didn’t argue the point. Their food arrived at that point surprising the witch who didn’t recall ordering though she did pick up her glass of milk and drink after seeing Faith’s no nonsense ‘you had better eat everything’ face. She recognized a resolve face very well after all.

TRWTRWTRWTRWTRWTRWTRWTRWTRWTRW

Eventually Willow and Faith had to return to Buffy's in order to help take care of the battle's aftermath. There were a number of issues that had to be settled and plans that needed to be made for the future not to mention a few odds and ends like a brand new Slayer weapon that had no obvious origin. Their morning interlude came to an end with a call from Anya of all people. It seems that the child that they had rescued was not responding well to the new conditions she'd found herself in and the Scoobies were getting really concerned. 

Buffy and the Scoobies explained a bit of the problem to Willow before asking her to try her hand at calming the little girl when she got to the Summer's residence. Xander had brought the girl back to Buffy's and managed to get her as far as the living room, that night, before she woke up and attacked him in her attempt to escape. She got out to the backyard before Buffy caught her and brought her back in. Then she hid in the living room behind a chair for the last few days not allowing anyone close enough to tend her or clean her up. The girl took food only if they left it near her hiding spot and walked away. But she ate very little of it if any. She became aggressive and nervous if anyone came to close to her. The red haired witch wondered if any of the Scoobies had seen what actually happened in that vineyard. Perhaps they wouldn't ask this of her if they knew... But then again they couldn't leave the child as she was now and that meant someone had to reach out to her and gain her trust. Willow being the only one who knew the child's language was a prime choice, so the witch merely sighed and went on to see what she could do.

Willow walked into the corner of the living room where the little girl had hidden herself underneath Joyce's poufy arm chair. There were two Potentials along with Dawn there, quietly conversing though they were all on the other side of the room, nervous about further terrifying the already scared and sick little girl. The three teenagers left when Willow gave them a brief nod and wave. According to Anya and Buffy the girl had not taken to any of the people in that house not even Tara, whom every Potential tended to respect as a mother figure. The Scoobies had thought that if not Tara the girl might be drawn to Anya the ex-demon, who despite her husband's reluctance and protests was feeling strong urges to mother a little person (her own words). That hadn't happened either. Willow however understood the girl whose people she had trained amongst for the better part of a year and a half.

This little girl had been dragged from the warmth and safety of her crèche, a type of daycare where all Trezor children were kept and raised after their birth until they were five or so. She probably saw many of her clan mates killed protecting their home and some of her crèche-mates murdered before being abducted by whoever the First sent after her. Then she was kept in a dark room and fed very little while being periodically bled. Until the battle in which she was again taken by people she'd never seen before and had no knowledge of. With this in mind, Willow stopped three feet from the chair and lowered herself into a cross legged pose and began softly speaking to the child in the Trezor tongue she had learned. She told the girl her name and explained as best she could in an age appropriate manner that she and her friends wanted only to help the child and they sought only to keep her safe from the First.

The child did not respond in the beginning and Willow was afraid that the dialect she was speaking was too far off from what the girl knew. But as Willow began speaking about wanting to feed and clean her up, the girl crawled from her compact hiding space. For the first time Willow got a really good look at the disheveled and gaunt child. Willow had no idea just how long the First and Caleb had the girl but by the looks of her it had been awhile. Pretty dark blue skin was marred by ugly blade marks some older than others. Hair a beautiful silvery white, stained with blood among other things, flowed to a stop just below shaking shoulders. And eyes once a bright sky blue with gold and silver motes were darkened by recent experiences. The child who could be no more than four perhaps three at the most, gazed cautiously at Willow and spoke the witches name in an almost whisper.

Willow nodded at that smiling gently at the child then asked if the girl had a name, but was not surprised at the negative response. In Trezor culture children in crèche had no names and were not named until the first full moon of their fifth year when their mother or another woman claimed them, after they'd proven their hardiness and vigor by surviving their infancy. In rare cases however, a child would be named and removed early if they'd done anything that showed great potential or did something that proved them worthy of a name at such a young age. Having survived the torture that the First had her put through and the extended separation from her people, Willow thought she well deserved a name of her own. And that is what she told the child who suddenly looked very eager and scampered over to Willow without further reservation. 

Willow gently stroked the child's cheek and thought hard and then finally decided upon a name she'd heard before, when she studied with Ysandre. It had been the name of Ysandre's mentor's mentor. A woman who'd lived far longer than any other known Deep Blue and was widely respected as a very strong, knowledgeable, and wise healer/shaman. Amarice.

When told her new name the girl squealed excitedly and wrapped her arms around Willow's neck before pulling back quickly and shyly out of her lap. Amarice whispered a question that the witch strained to hear, but could not. When she asked the child to speak up, the question stunned her, though she should have seen it coming. Namie? The girl had asked.

Willow paused at this her chest constricting painfully and tears coming to her eyes. Namie. Mother. Certain events were fresh in her mind so her knee jerk reaction was to deny the title right away. Only a mother names the Trezor child, not even the father is allowed that right. Most mothers spent five years picking a name and preparing to take on this responsibility of a child. Willow had had nowhere near that amount of time to prepare herself for this not even the typical human nine months which was another reason for the instant urge towards denial. Willow had little experience with her own mother, the neglect that she had been subject to her whole life gave her little basis to believe herself capable of that role. What little she knew of what a mother actually is, was because of Joyce (and Mrs. Harris to a minor extent). This was something that she'd thought about when she and Tara were together and had discussed their future. Suddenly she was reminded of the baby bird in a Dr Seuss book who spent the entire story searching for his mother, his family.

The one thing that stopped her from saying no right away was the memory of Ysandre's last words to her. 'Keep the blue gem' she'd said 'it is the best path for you both'. At the time that meant little to her but now it meant everything, now that she fully understood the meaning of it. Ysandre's opinion meant a lot to her and she knew that the woman would not have told her anything that would end up harming her without reason. Ysandre remade her into a stronger and better put together woman and would not have damaged her own creation by giving bad advice. So, Willow gave this a lot of weight. She thought about the strain in her friendships at the moment and her long separation from them, which kept her at a distance from everyone. That and her lack of other family and the knowledge that it would be impossible to return the girl to her exact clan as they were no doubt all dead. Otherwise the First would never have been able to get her, given the fierce protectiveness of that people. So, the only other choice was to try to get the girl to a nearby clan and have them adopt her. Which would mean work and time in first finding another clan then assuring that the clan would accept her and not exploit her abilities. The girl would be forced to then find a mother just like that baby bird and coming from outside the clan to gain acceptance was not easy, even for other Trezor Ble. Portal travel being what it was meant she couldn't even send the girl to Sidone, which would have been her first choice.

The final fact that came to mind for her was that the girl was sure to live at least as long if not longer than herself and both would benefit from having a consistent person to depend on and call family when the other Scoobies or Clan members were gone. It made no sense to her story especially right now with everything else, but it was before her now. The decision was irreversible once made, she couldn't change her mind because she refused to play games with a child like that. And she had no idea what she'd actually do with a child of her own at this point in time, especially a child who was so obviously non-human. However, she looked into Amarice's eyes and saw fire, strength, and need there and so in the end all she could say was yes. I am your mother...

That said, the girl crawled back into her lap wrapped skinny arms around her neck and held on for dear life chanting namie, namie, namie.


End file.
